What does it mean instead of at the top, the power is at the bottum

Question

Like instead of 2^4
The 4 is wrote smaller and below and beside the 2

Answer 1

it is called a subscript
it is not an actual mathematical operator, but instead is an indicator.

e.g. you often see it to label two points

(x₁ , y₁)
and (x₂ , y₂)

to state that you have two points of the form (x,y) but the x's and y's are different

e.g. if you have two points (x₁ , y₁)
and (x₂ , y₂)
the slope is (y₂ - y₁)/(x₂ - x₁)

Think of it as the first x ---->x₁
and the second x ---- > ₂

Answer 2

Oh I see. Thank you