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:
87 x 87 x 87 x 87 x ... (for a total of 96 times) = 1562601552236096528740951396682739542517848725061271038287664017595659315432725273317644398402938998631157222122026377392623761604020978211529629466399740080382831238060273524516284035841
Therefore, 87 to the power of 96 is 1562601552236096528740951396682739542517848725061271038287664017595659315432725273317644398402938998631157222122026377392623761604020978211529629466399740080382831238060273524516284035841.