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:
88 x 88 x 88 x 88 x ... (for a total of 85 times) = 1909972581328318779322772333151347912370170859492492469118777418180721058189209851329338286766280688435775694887710340611850160324523236699564508028203493483524128768
Therefore, 88 to the power of 85 is 1909972581328318779322772333151347912370170859492492469118777418180721058189209851329338286766280688435775694887710340611850160324523236699564508028203493483524128768.