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:
81 x 81 x 81 x 81 x ... (for a total of 78 times) = 72749744522375265125206295317964396725533432866824952575839903695438498229007286764085775359585486700313225701595838552106856020213734128131130137441
Therefore, 81 to the power of 78 is 72749744522375265125206295317964396725533432866824952575839903695438498229007286764085775359585486700313225701595838552106856020213734128131130137441.