modulomathy.com

#math trivia for #May7:  Similar to #127:  How can #128 be computed from 1, 2, and 8 using only two operations from +, -, *, /, ^?

— Burt Kaliski Jr. (@modulomathy) May 7, 2012

There’s a small trick:  You have to use either parentheses or superscripts.

128 = 2^(8-1)

or

128 = 2^8-1