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:
73 x 73 x 73 x 73 x ... (for a total of 85 times) = 241236550765328257608097726271685039504247185335613361449703987474874019720155699951935315252064055824714336357685551821284290580777896126110970653853058469993
Therefore, 73 to the power of 85 is 241236550765328257608097726271685039504247185335613361449703987474874019720155699951935315252064055824714336357685551821284290580777896126110970653853058469993.