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:
84 x 84 x 84 x 84 x ... (for a total of 86 times) = 3076228570253608885774134843207190803179209356605950951488948189515664213990607024584278611551676183452064470817419377853227389233222060897041036477438190924978978816
Therefore, 84 to the power of 86 is 3076228570253608885774134843207190803179209356605950951488948189515664213990607024584278611551676183452064470817419377853227389233222060897041036477438190924978978816.