This question is motivated by teaching : I would like to see a completely elementary proof showing for example that for all natural integers $k$ we have eventually $2^n>n^k$. All proofs I know rely somehow on properties of the logarithm. (I have nothing against logarithms but some students loathe them.) *Is there a brilliant "proof from the book" for this inequality (for example given by an explicit easy injection of a set containing $n^k$ elements into, say, the set of subsets of $\lbrace 1,\ldots,n\rbrace$ for $n$ sufficiently large)?* A fairly easy but somewhat computational proof (which leaves me therefore unhappy): Given $k$ choose $n_0>2^{k+1}$. For $n>n_0$ we have \begin{align*} &\frac{(n+1)^k}{2^{n+1}}\\ &=\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{n^k}{2^n}+\frac{\sum_{j=0}^{k-1}{k\choose j}n^j}{2^n}\right)\\ &\leq \frac{n^k}{2^n}\left(\frac{1}{2}+\frac{2^k}{2n_0}\right)\\ \leq \frac{3}{4}\frac{n^k}{2^n} \end{align*} showing that the ratio $\frac{n^k}{2^n}$ decays exponentially fast for $n>n_0$. A perhaps more elementary but slightly sloppy proof is the observation that digits of $n\longmapsto 2^{2^n}$ (roughly) double when increasing $n$ by $1$ whilst digits of $n\longmapsto (2^n)^k$ form (roughly) an arithmetic progression. (And this "proof" uses therefore properties of the logarithm in disguise.) **Addendum:** Fedor Petrov's proof can be slightly rewritten as $$2^{n+k}=\sum_j{n+k\choose j}>{n+k\choose k+1}>n^k\frac{n}{(k+1)!}$$ showing $$2^n>n^k\frac{n}{2^k(k+1)!}>n^k$$ for $n>2^k(k+1)!$.