The first step is to understand what it means when a number has an exponent. The “power” of a number indicates how many times the base would be multiplied by itself to reach the correct value.
The second step is to write the number in the base-exponent form, and lastly calculate what the final result would be. Consider the example of 2 to the power of 4: in exponent form that would be
So re-applying these steps to our particular problem, we first convert our word problem to a base-exponent form of:
To simplify this, all that is needed is to multiply it out:
38 x 38 x 38 x 38 x ... (for a total of 99 times) = 2503664117447832481659512032262264541559193185876785571611731776710906601922388790657456767397893845921751442455522377068303724363256094068002638341815140352
Therefore, 38 to the power of 99 is 2503664117447832481659512032262264541559193185876785571611731776710906601922388790657456767397893845921751442455522377068303724363256094068002638341815140352.