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 90 times) = 123718924450261713699209019245114723422948384687776391593407008907853839259897695945801855015577697501694592785838770501836106294223329689205735424
Therefore, 42 to the power of 90 is 123718924450261713699209019245114723422948384687776391593407008907853839259897695945801855015577697501694592785838770501836106294223329689205735424.