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:
45 x 45 x 45 x 45 x ... (for a total of 87 times) = 675287480916119557539451818816740997089009559913482951650119698139327568517835934843681926586314928574912574976707446694490499794483184814453125
Therefore, 45 to the power of 87 is 675287480916119557539451818816740997089009559913482951650119698139327568517835934843681926586314928574912574976707446694490499794483184814453125.