Exponents

2 × 2 = 4. 2 × 2 × 2 = 8. 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 16. The pattern is clear — but writing out a hundred 2s to express 2 multiplied by itself a hundred times is absurd. Math invents a tiny shorthand for 'multiply this by itself this many times,' and suddenly a giant stack of twos becomes 2¹⁰⁰.