Scientific notation

[Perikles]

I know 'that 10 to the power of 4' is 10 (elevado) a la cuarta potencia

How would I say '100 to the power of 32' verbally in Spanish?

Would you use the notation 100^32 in writing?

[aleCcowaN]

Colloquially, we say "cien a la treinta y dos", formally "cien a la trigésimosegunda potencia".

"100^32" is a computer editing expression to us. We write (this forum hasn't activated the build-in sub and supra index writing features)

100[sup]32[/sup] in bbcode, which looks like:

......32
100

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

Colloquially, we say "cien a la treinta y dos", formally "cien a la trigésimosegunda potencia".

"100^32" is a computer editing expression to us. We write (this forum hasn't activated the build-in sub and supra index writing features)

100[sup]32[/sup] in bbcode, which looks like:

......32
100

Thanks for that. Not every application has bbcode, which is why I used the ^ notation.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Thanks for that.

You're always welcome

Originally Posted by Perikles

Not every application has bbcode, which is why I used the ^ notation.

Oh, I see!

BTW, we use here "enésimo/a" (meaning umpteenth) as a degree referring to humongous figures:

......n
100 ( "cien a la enésima", or "cien a la enésima potencia", being n a undetermined natural number -x when a real one-)

Por enésima vez te digo que te quedes quieto.

- Tiene dos o tres deudas
- Dos o tres ¡a la enésima! Ese tipo tiene más deudas que pelos en la cabeza.

[Don José]

Originally Posted by Perikles

I know 'that 10 to the power of 4' is 10 (elevado) a la cuarta potencia

How would I say '100 to the power of 32' verbally in Spanish?

Here we usually say "100 elevado a 32".
The notation 100^32 is new to me.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

En México, normalmente se dice "... (elevado) a la ... (potencia)".

La potencia debería expresarse con números ordinales, pero mucha gente ignora la reglas o los confunde con los números fraccionarios. En vez de "cien elevado a la trigesimosegunda potencia", hay quienes dicen "cien (elevado) a la (potencia) treinta y dos" o "cien (elevado) a la treintaidosava (potencia)".


As for the notation, it's understood by people who are familiar with maths in computers.

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

BTW, we use here "enésimo/a" (meaning umpteenth) as a degree referring to humongous figures

It can also be translated literally as nth, which is sometimes useful in word games as a word with no vowels.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Don José

Here we usually say "100 elevado a 32".
The notation 100^32 is new to me.

That's the way we say it in Chile too.

[Perikles]

Thanks everyone.

The notation 100^32 is quite new, but used very often on scientific internet sites where the superscript function does not work. It is not really a problem because in context the symbol is unamphibological.

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

As for the notation, it's understood by people who are familiar with maths in computers.

Originally Posted by Perikles

The notation 100^32 is quite new, but used very often on scientific internet sites where the superscript function does not work. It is not really a problem because in context the symbol is unamphibological.

It may be "new" on these sites, but as AdA suggests, I believe that it has been borrowed from computing. Some programming languages have used the symbol "^" as the exponentiation operator since the days of ALGOL 60, more than 50 years ago. While different programming languages use this symbol for different purposes, one can argue that exponentiation is the best known outside of computing.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by Perikles

[...]because in context the symbol is unamphibological.

Glad^n

[chileno]

Originally Posted by wrholt

It may be "new" on these sites, but as AdA suggests, I believe that it has been borrowed from computing. Some programming languages have used the symbol "^" as the exponentiation operator since the days of ALGOL 60, more than 50 years ago. While different programming languages use this symbol for different purposes, one can argue that exponentiation is the best known outside of computing.

I agree.