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:
41 x 41 x 41 x 41 x ... (for a total of 86 times) = 5005087541343613239688921552801091660530363349641842921514682703882449846651673311930044419747421870756871260015375211347049866294773211441
Therefore, 41 to the power of 86 is 5005087541343613239688921552801091660530363349641842921514682703882449846651673311930044419747421870756871260015375211347049866294773211441.