The answer to the question is 1.
This might seem a bit surprising at first, but there is a simple reason why any non-zero number raised to the power of zero equals one. This is rooted in the rules of exponents.
When we talk about exponents, we’re essentially talking about how many times to multiply the base by itself. For example, 103 = 10 × 10 × 10 = 1000. However, when we get to zero, it’s a bit different. To understand it better, let’s look at the pattern of decreasing powers of 10:
- 103 = 1000
- 102 = 100
- 101 = 10
- 100 = ?
- 10-1 = 0.1
If we look at the division of powers of ten, we see that:
101 ÷ 101 = 100 = 1
This means that 100 must equal 1. Another way to think about it is to consider the concept of an empty product: when you don’t have any factors to multiply together, you get the multiplicative identity, which is 1. Thus, 10 to the 0 power is 1.