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In addition to using objects to help us visualize the scale of waves, the diagram above lists the ranges of different waves’ wavelength in meters.
Wavelengths vary dramatically. Instead of writing out all the zeros in the very large and the very tiny numbers, we use exponents as shorthand.
Here’s an example. According to this diagram, the longest radio waves have wavelengths of 10³ meters.
10³ is read "10 to the third power."
10 is the base, which tells us what number to multiply.
3 is the exponent, which tells us how many times to multiply the base.
So, 10³ = 10 × 10 × 10 = 1,000