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 90 times) = 444327623969308026170538191638755279479948024937887115655599213670539047173018028714851345010106332625304724648046762034839450065623091268296462885700748302042484283447265625
Therefore, 85 to the power of 90 is 444327623969308026170538191638755279479948024937887115655599213670539047173018028714851345010106332625304724648046762034839450065623091268296462885700748302042484283447265625.