Take the tour ×  I wish to calculate a power like $$2.14 ^
{2.14}$$  When I ask my calculator to do it, I just get an
answer, but I want to see the calculation. So my question is,
how to calculate this with a pen, paper and a bunch of brains.
Thanks in advance,  share|improve this question By hand, you
will need a table of logarithms or a slide rule. This operation
can't be done in finitely many steps, like ordinary addition or
multiplication, you have to resort to approximation. –  arbautjc
Dec 6 at 9:58 @arbautjc I would only need the first 5 decimals,
I guess it would be possible in finite steps then. –  Mixxiphoid
Dec 6 at 10:10 You are right, but it's still an iterative
process that is not very easy, and very time consuming.
Historically, it was done to build tables, which were then used
for any computation of this kind. By the way, 5 decimals is the
precision given by "standard" tables of logarithms ;-) – 
arbautjc Dec 6 at 10:14 @arbautjc thanks for the helpful links
and comments. I will study those l