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 96 times) = 167577948158831661936643302622119978633773899505499546380437597754974679973952775099198526014441364079378811519034834903789337966891123335653177896242826960815364145673811435699462890625
Therefore, 85 to the power of 96 is 167577948158831661936643302622119978633773899505499546380437597754974679973952775099198526014441364079378811519034834903789337966891123335653177896242826960815364145673811435699462890625.