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:
53 x 53 x 53 x 53 x ... (for a total of 97 times) = 179787441139069413905269131809902461145936499345523927307866485418493335326883986539905861779053994079378463121246182454163301822083796139095570343328159554888465285813
Therefore, 53 to the power of 97 is 179787441139069413905269131809902461145936499345523927307866485418493335326883986539905861779053994079378463121246182454163301822083796139095570343328159554888465285813.