Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Exponentiation
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==Etymology== The term ''exponent'' originates from the [[Latin]] ''exponentem'', the [[present participle]] of ''exponere'', meaning "to put forth".<ref>{{cite web |title=Exponent | Etymology of exponent by etymonline |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/exponent}}</ref> The term ''power'' ({{langx|la|potentia, potestas, dignitas}}) is a mistranslation<ref name="Rotman">{{cite book |last=Rotman |first=Joseph J. |author-link=Joseph J. Rotman |date=2015 |title=Advanced Modern Algebra, Part 1 |location=Providence, RI |publisher=[[American Mathematical Society]] |at=p. 130, fn. 4 |isbn=978-1-4704-1554-9 |edition=3rd |series=[[Graduate Studies in Mathematics]] |volume=165 |url=https://www.ams.org/books/gsm/165/04 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Szabó |first=Árpád |date=1978 |title=The Beginnings of Greek Mathematics |location=Dordrecht |publisher=[[D. Reidel]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/TheBeginningsOfGreekMathematics/page/n37 37] |isbn=90-277-0819-3 |series=Synthese Historical Library |volume=17 |translator=A.M. Ungar |url=https://archive.org/details/TheBeginningsOfGreekMathematics}}</ref> of the [[ancient Greek]] δύναμις (''dúnamis'', here: "amplification"<ref name="Rotman"/>) used by the [[Greek mathematics|Greek]] mathematician [[Euclid]] for the square of a line,<ref name="MacTutor"/> following [[Hippocrates of Chios]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Ball |first=W. W. Rouse |author-link=W. W. Rouse Ball |date=1915 |title=A Short Account of the History of Mathematics |location=London |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/shortaccountofhi00ballrich/page/38 38] |edition=6th |url=https://archive.org/details/shortaccountofhi00ballrich}}</ref> The word ''exponent'' was coined in 1544 by Michael Stifel.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://jeff560.tripod.com/e.html|title=Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics (E)|date=June 23, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Stifel |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Stifel |date=1544 |title=Arithmetica integra |location=Nuremberg |publisher=[[Johannes Petreius]] |page=235v |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_fndPsRv08R0C/page/n491}}</ref> In the 16th century, [[Robert Recorde]] used the terms "square", "cube", "zenzizenzic" ([[fourth power]]), "sursolid" ([[fifth power (algebra)|fifth]]), "zenzicube" ([[sixth power|sixth]]), "second sursolid" ([[seventh power|seventh]]), and "[[zenzizenzizenzic]]" ([[eighth power|eighth]]).<ref name="worldwidewords">{{cite web |title=Zenzizenzizenzic |publisher=World Wide Words |last=Quinion |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Quinion |url=https://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-zen1.htm |access-date=2020-04-16}}</ref> "Biquadrate" has been used to refer to the fourth power as well.
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)