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:
59 x 59 x 59 x 59 x ... (for a total of 81 times) = 274797604813693422359833057790447548130804986067701378075682656923066696046626892261927344480507962987689731282594761465251926877837587700660859
Therefore, 59 to the power of 81 is 274797604813693422359833057790447548130804986067701378075682656923066696046626892261927344480507962987689731282594761465251926877837587700660859.

