To use an exponent to represent a number like 16, you express it as a power of its prime factors. For example, 16 can be expressed as 2 raised to the power of 4, written mathematically as 24. This means that 2 is multiplied by itself four times: 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 16.
Exponents are a shorthand way to represent repeated multiplication. In this case, the base is 2 and the exponent is 4. Thus, every time you see the expression 24, you can be confident that it equals 16 because you are multiplying 2 by itself four times. Understanding this notation is useful not only for representing whole numbers but also in advanced mathematics where larger numbers are involved.