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===Serial exponentiation=== <!-- Section header "Serial exponentiation" used as redirect target! --> If [[exponentiation]] is indicated by stacked symbols using superscript notation, the usual rule is to work from the top down:{{r|BS}}{{r|NIST}} : {{nowrap|''a''<sup>''b''<sup>''c''</sup></sup> {{=}} ''a''<sup>(''b''<sup>''c''</sup>)</sup>}}, which typically is not equal to (''a''<sup>''b''</sup>)<sup>''c''</sup>. This convention is useful because there is [[Exponentiation#Identities and properties|a property of exponentiation]] that (''a''<sup>''b''</sup>)<sup>''c''</sup> = ''a''<sup>''bc''</sup>, so it's unnecessary to use serial exponentiation for this. However, when exponentiation is represented by an explicit symbol such as a [[caret]] (^) or [[arrow (symbol)|arrow]] (β), there is no common standard. For example, [[Microsoft Excel]] and computation programming language [[MATLAB]] evaluate <code>''a''^''b''^''c''</code> as (''a''<sup>''b''</sup>)<sup>''c''</sup>, but [[Google Search]] and [[Wolfram Alpha]] as ''a''<sup>(''b''<sup>''c''</sup>)</sup>. Thus <code>4^3^2</code> is evaluated to 4,096 in the first case and to 262,144 in the second case.
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