The parts of an exponential expression include the base and the exponent. They base and exponent are written so that the base is larger than the exponent; the exponent is "raised" to the upper right of the base. Because of this, you can read the exponential expression shown here as three raised to the eighth power.

Written as shown, the expression is in exponential form. In expanded form, it says, "multiply 3 times itself 8 times" and is written as: (3)(3)(3)(3)(3)(3)(3)(3). 38 = (3)(3)(3)(3)(3)(3)(3)(3)

Exponential Terms

There are two parts to an exponential term. "a" is the base and "n" is the exponent. This is read as a to the n or a raised to the nth power.