the symbol ^ is translated as "to the power of" so 2^3 is two to the third power (2 cubed).
Kinda funny, this place is a huge resource for information, but sometimes the answers look harder than the questions!
Anyway, hope that helps.
The way I thought of it is like multiplying by 0. No one ever really was able to explain that to me, it just simply was 0.
Same thing with anything raised to the power of 0. It just is 1, most of the explanations always looked like advanced proofs to me too...