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:
81 x 81 x 81 x 81 x ... (for a total of 80 times) = 477311073811304114486478503581164406916224853039238513850085608145771986880516808459166772134240378240755073828170296740373082348622309614668344831750401
Therefore, 81 to the power of 80 is 477311073811304114486478503581164406916224853039238513850085608145771986880516808459166772134240378240755073828170296740373082348622309614668344831750401.