Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 12:22:58 -0700 Subject: RE: [math-fun] 2^65536 From: "Payton, Paul" <paul.payton@lmco.com> An interesting read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetration [I wrote a column about Ackermann's function, tetration, and generally huge numbers recently for the local San Francisco Mensa chapter.] <Jim Propp's original note about 2^2^2^2^2>
Some funsters may remember that I have a fondness for making up systems of number names. I invented one that is often unmanageably bulky, but it has the virtue of giving short names to a few very large numbers. It's based on powers of two, and it happens that it gives a short name to 2^65536, namely *gin*. (The g is hard, as in *gear*. *Gin* is intended to rhyme with * machine*.) 2^(2^65536) is called *den*, pronounced approximately like *Dane *. One hundred, alas, is *paca pake ta*. 2^65536 - 1 would take several days to pronounce (because one would have to name every smaller power of two).
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Allan Wechsler -
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