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:
96 x 96 x 96 x 96 x ... (for a total of 59 times) = 899503275886508003756444719478155736559202857659999148840886326542667784150547080635742489343141481354082848400736256
Therefore, 96 to the power of 59 is 899503275886508003756444719478155736559202857659999148840886326542667784150547080635742489343141481354082848400736256.