> ...Does anyone know why squares, cubes, etc are called the "powers" of
> > numbers?
>
> I think the terminology goes back to Latin translations of Euclid
> expressing exponents as a "potency" of the root number. I need to look
> up the original Greek word. Both synonyms (power = exponent) have Latin
> origins, but the idea came from Greek geometry.
>
> Chuck Blatchley
>
Yes, I'd be interested in knowing. I keep thinking that words like power and
potency have to have had a religious frame of reference originally--that it
would work back to some allusion to God or the gods.
pat sloane
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