The first step a math tutor would suggest 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:
36 x 36 x 36 x 36 x ... (for a total of 87 times) = 2502174344034616740141747745013200480822833755912047362049461514035426460268410806433022849229003094413256317481224933559140641088208896
Therefore, 36 to the power of 87 is 2502174344034616740141747745013200480822833755912047362049461514035426460268410806433022849229003094413256317481224933559140641088208896.

