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:
82 x 82 x 82 x 82 x ... (for a total of 86 times) = 387249891722354996549015126318601265529615085242513769122458847219278047148333304434323773260034006941532222662658262677838333773259487485846545985592764614179815424
Therefore, 82 to the power of 86 is 387249891722354996549015126318601265529615085242513769122458847219278047148333304434323773260034006941532222662658262677838333773259487485846545985592764614179815424.

