2 to the 4th power, or 24, is calculated by multiplying 2 by itself four times. This can be broken down as follows:
- 2 x 2 = 4
- 4 x 2 = 8
- 8 x 2 = 16
Therefore, 24 equals 16. In general, any number raised to a power simply means you are multiplying that number by itself as many times as the exponent indicates. In this case, since we started with 2 and raised it to the 4th power, we arrived at 16.