Why do whole numbers rise to an exponent get greater while fractions raise to an exponent get smaller?

This is because exponents increase a number, for example squaring a number is basically multiplying it by itself. So . Now obiviously 4 is greater than 2. But lets make the numbers like this:

And again,

Now, which is bigger

A quarter is smaller than a half right?

So in this case we can see that fractions raised to an exponent get smaller while numbers raised to an exponent get bigger.

a 10 percent increase