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:
39 x 39 x 39 x 39 x ... (for a total of 98 times) = 840100974722859384202950193985650597836668537639232153539786699980570503463966551705186661902685965292193129519677187832582449178925783229543887649588656881
Therefore, 39 to the power of 98 is 840100974722859384202950193985650597836668537639232153539786699980570503463966551705186661902685965292193129519677187832582449178925783229543887649588656881.