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:
55 x 55 x 55 x 55 x ... (for a total of 81 times) = 931918319340007458686874904482350731938819006845121401710306697181983875344166922149431795505502402164610398216382236569188535213470458984375
Therefore, 55 to the power of 81 is 931918319340007458686874904482350731938819006845121401710306697181983875344166922149431795505502402164610398216382236569188535213470458984375.