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:
85 x 85 x 85 x 85 x ... (for a total of 79 times) = 265518711226513720899086722935111681216940076000376568848213909481110997497797896411686569047437684696400908329790013784332813884248025715351104736328125
Therefore, 85 to the power of 79 is 265518711226513720899086722935111681216940076000376568848213909481110997497797896411686569047437684696400908329790013784332813884248025715351104736328125.

