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:
74 x 74 x 74 x 74 x ... (for a total of 78 times) = 63106506528195532819539853755619846139591003664053690577920396615263284279598458822466790052650943464008525347646329505187594983665398973019979776
Therefore, 74 to the power of 78 is 63106506528195532819539853755619846139591003664053690577920396615263284279598458822466790052650943464008525347646329505187594983665398973019979776.