How can exponents you find the area of a rectangle if each side length is multiplied by x?

Exponents can make the problem smaller and look less confusing. If you see a problem with  5*5*5*5*5*5*5*5 then you're going to eventually loose count and will have to keep repeating. But if you put 5 to the 8th power then you know right away just to multiply 5, (8) times,