TITLE: What is the double multiplication sign for?
QUESTION [8 upvotes]: I accidentally typed 4 ** 5 into Google and received 1,024 instead of 20. But 4^5 is also 1024...
Does the double multiplication sign also mean the power sign? Why two symbols?

REPLY [6 votes]: Caveat: The symbol ^ in C family languages is bitwise xor.  This is true in Python, too.  The ** symbol is also seen in Python.