TITLE: What is the order when doing $x^{y^z}$ and why?
QUESTION [48 upvotes]: Does $x^{y^z}$ equal $x^{(y^z)}$? If so, why? 
Why not simply apply the order of the operation from left to right? Meaning $x^{y^z}$ equals $(x^y)^z$?
I always get confused with this and I don't understand the underlying rule. Any help would be appreciated!

REPLY [2 votes]: The exponent is evaluated first if it is an expression. Examples are $3^{x+1}=3^{\left(x+1\right)}$ and $e^{5x^3+8x^2+5x+10}$ (the exponent is a cubic polynomial) and $10^{0+0+0+10^{15}+0+0+0}=10^{10^{15}}$. The left-associativity simply fails when the exponent contains multiple terms.