What's the way/s that native English speakers say this number (52) in words?
Is there a shorter way than "Five to the power of 2"?
For example:
If you take 52 (in words?) and divide it into 5 is equal to 5.
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Sign up to join this communityWhat's the way/s that native English speakers say this number (52) in words?
Is there a shorter way than "Five to the power of 2"?
For example:
If you take 52 (in words?) and divide it into 5 is equal to 5.
52 is "five squared".
53 is "five cubed".
54 is "five to the power of four", "five to the power four", "five to the fourth power", "five to the fourth", or "five to the four".
From the comments, it seems some English speakers are unfamiliar with the shorter "to the four" way of saying things, but the following sources (among others) attest to it:
These are obscure, and probably not understood, but are real words:
zenzizenzic - 4th power
zenzic cube - 6th power
zenzizenzizenzic - 8th power.
(IIRC, Arabic in origin, through German to English. Lit. "square of the square", "square of the cube", "square of the square of the square".
Don't have my source with me.
"Power of n" indicates that n is the base. To indicate that it's the exponent, the phrasing is "nth power". So, for instance, 5^2 is the second power of 5, 5 raised to the second power, or 5 to the second. The second power is usually referred to as squared and the third power as cubed.