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:
42 x 42 x 42 x 42 x ... (for a total of 83 times) = 536649962100708095213554780399026910882880496530377436521313283449849076141532538669667207831733554809168599412773341577544676868620288
Therefore, 42 to the power of 83 is 536649962100708095213554780399026910882880496530377436521313283449849076141532538669667207831733554809168599412773341577544676868620288.