First we add 8 on both sides to get rid of the "-8" on our equation,we do it on both sides because when you do something on one side of an equation you have to do it on the other.
That will leave us with: 4x2=64
So we will solve our exponent: 4x2
Then we will have: 16x=64 because 4 times 4 is 16
Then we will divide by 16 on both sides to get rid of "16" in "16x"