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:
99 x 99 x 99 x 99 x ... (for a total of 72 times) = 484991370274163135391626238633135363670332921761431865272435420626479226423410046814852063249106427670526873558093511292243488578695379385552801
Therefore, 99 to the power of 72 is 484991370274163135391626238633135363670332921761431865272435420626479226423410046814852063249106427670526873558093511292243488578695379385552801.