Let us take an example with radix 10, using 2 digits we can write from 0,1,23....95,96,97,98 and 99 that is total 100= 
 numbers
Similarly using 3 digits, we can write from 0 to 999= 1000 = 
 numbers.
Generalizing this we can express 
 numbers using k-digits in a radix r.