Answer:
 They are looking for the exponent k = 32
 They are looking for the exponent k = 32
Explanation:
 this means that we have
 this means that we have 
 four times
 four times
 x
 x 
 x
 x 
 x
 x 
 Each one of these is 8 8's
 Each one of these is 8 8's
(8x8x8x8x8x8x8x8)x(8x8x8x8x8x8x8x8)x(8x8x8x8x8x8x8x8)x(8x8x8x8x8x8x8x8)
How many 8s is that? 32.
The power or powers principal tells us that we can just multiply the exponents. (8 x 4) = 32