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:
55 x 55 x 55 x 55 x ... (for a total of 96 times) = 118800478927855109454287255227405021018378756117165646389504201506780099244974801640312434006472040225246521042171204838311924546767617272280403994955122470855712890625
Therefore, 55 to the power of 96 is 118800478927855109454287255227405021018378756117165646389504201506780099244974801640312434006472040225246521042171204838311924546767617272280403994955122470855712890625.

