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:
72 x 72 x 72 x 72 x ... (for a total of 69 times) = 143199748015694657530717646551508751674330743615790604558549652360577468199210801128731738311495811206437806797028622691458875392
Therefore, 72 to the power of 69 is 143199748015694657530717646551508751674330743615790604558549652360577468199210801128731738311495811206437806797028622691458875392.