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:
98 x 98 x 98 x 98 x ... (for a total of 81 times) = 194675873080400120200896220754204260967839933513534762220443308923399387788525972608541434952557560428494751939888082397048508755871788368227343338376382799413248
Therefore, 98 to the power of 81 is 194675873080400120200896220754204260967839933513534762220443308923399387788525972608541434952557560428494751939888082397048508755871788368227343338376382799413248.