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Conway Chained Arrow Notation
Conway chained arrow notation, created by mathematician John Horton Conway, is a means of expressing certain extremely large numbers. It is simply a finite sequence of positive integers separated by rightward arrows, e.g. 2\to3\to4\to5\to6. As with most combinatorial notations, the definition is recursive. In this case the notation eventually resolves to being the leftmost number raised to some (usually enormous) integer power. Definition and overview A "Conway chain" is defined as follows: * Any positive integer is a chain of length 1. * A chain of length ''n'', followed by a right-arrow → and a positive integer, together form a chain of length n+1. Any chain represents an integer, according to the six rules below. Two chains are said to be equivalent if they represent the same integer. Let a, b, c denote positive integers and let \# denote the unchanged remainder of the chain. Then: #An empty chain (or a chain of length 0) is equal to 1. #The chain a represents the number a. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Horton Conway
John Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) was an English mathematician. He was active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to many branches of recreational mathematics, most notably the invention of the cellular automaton called the Game of Life. Born and raised in Liverpool, Conway spent the first half of his career at the University of Cambridge before moving to the United States, where he held the John von Neumann Professorship at Princeton University for the rest of his career. On 11 April 2020, at age 82, he died of complications from COVID-19. Early life and education Conway was born on 26 December 1937 in Liverpool, the son of Cyril Horton Conway and Agnes Boyce. He became interested in mathematics at a very early age. By the time he was 11, his ambition was to become a mathematician. After leaving sixth form, he studied mathematics at Gonville and Caius Coll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyperoperation
In mathematics, the hyperoperation sequence is an infinite sequence of arithmetic operations (called ''hyperoperations'' in this context) that starts with a unary operation (the successor function with ''n'' = 0). The sequence continues with the binary operations of addition (''n'' = 1), multiplication (''n'' = 2), and exponentiation (''n'' = 3). After that, the sequence proceeds with further binary operations extending beyond exponentiation, using right-associativity. For the operations beyond exponentiation, the ''n''th member of this sequence is named by Reuben Goodstein after the Greek prefix of ''n'' suffixed with ''-ation'' (such as tetration (''n'' = 4), pentation (''n'' = 5), hexation (''n'' = 6), etc.) and can be written as using ''n'' − 2 arrows in Knuth's up-arrow notation. Each hyperoperation may be understood recursively in terms of the previous one by: :a = \underbrace_,\quad n \ge 2 It may also be defined according to the recursion rule part of the defi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Large Numbers
Large numbers, far beyond those encountered in everyday life—such as simple counting or financial transactions—play a crucial role in various domains. These expansive quantities appear prominently in mathematics, cosmology, cryptography, and statistical mechanics. While they often manifest as large positive integers, they can also take other forms in different contexts (such as P-adic number). Googology delves into the naming conventions and properties of these immense numerical entities. Since the customary, traditional (non-technical) decimal format of large numbers can be lengthy, other systems have been devised that allows for shorter representation. For example, a billion is represented as 13 characters (1,000,000,000) in decimal format, but is only 3 characters (109) when expressed in exponential format. A trillion is 17 characters in decimal, but only 4 (1012) in exponential. Values that vary dramatically can be represented and compared graphically via logarithmic sca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steinhaus–Moser Notation
In mathematics, Steinhaus–Moser notation is a notation for expressing certain large numbers. It is an extension (devised by Leo Moser) of Hugo Steinhaus's polygon notation. Definitions : 20px, n in a triangle a number in a triangle means . : 20px, n in a square a number in a square is equivalent to "the number inside triangles, which are all nested." : 20px, n in a pentagon a number in a pentagon is equivalent to "the number inside squares, which are all nested." etc.: written in an ()-sided polygon is equivalent to "the number inside nested -sided polygons". In a series of nested polygons, they are associated inward. The number inside two triangles is equivalent to inside one triangle, which is equivalent to raised to the power of . Steinhaus defined only the triangle, the square, and the circle 20px, n in a circle, which is equivalent to the pentagon defined above. Special values Steinhaus defined: *mega is the number equivalent to 2 in a circle: *megis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strictly Increasing
In mathematical writing, the term strict refers to the property of excluding equality and equivalence and often occurs in the context of inequality and monotonic functions. It is often attached to a technical term to indicate that the exclusive meaning of the term is to be understood. The opposite is non-strict, which is often understood to be the case but can be put explicitly for clarity. In some contexts, the word "proper" can also be used as a mathematical synonym for "strict". Use This term is commonly used in the context of inequalities — the phrase "strictly less than" means "less than and not equal to" (likewise "strictly greater than" means "greater than and not equal to"). More generally, a strict partial order, strict total order, and strict weak order exclude equality and equivalence. When comparing numbers to zero, the phrases "strictly positive" and "strictly negative" mean "positive and not equal to zero" and "negative and not equal to zero", respectiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham's Number
Graham's number is an Large numbers, immense number that arose as an upper bound on the answer of a problem in the mathematical field of Ramsey theory. It is much larger than many other large numbers such as Skewes's number and Moser's number, both of which are in turn much larger than a googolplex. As with these, it is so large that the observable universe is far too small to contain an ordinary Numerical digit, digital representation of Graham's number, assuming that each digit occupies one Planck volume, possibly the smallest measurable space. But even the number of digits in this digital representation of Graham's number would itself be a number so large that its digital representation cannot be represented in the observable universe. Nor even can the number of digits of ''that'' number—and so forth, for a number of times far exceeding the total number of Planck volumes in the observable universe. Thus, Graham's number cannot be expressed even by physical universe-scale Tetrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ackermann Function
In computability theory, the Ackermann function, named after Wilhelm Ackermann, is one of the simplest and earliest-discovered examples of a total function, total computable function that is not Primitive recursive function, primitive recursive. All primitive recursive functions are total and computable, but the Ackermann function illustrates that not all total computable functions are primitive recursive. After Ackermann's publication of his function (which had three non-negative integer arguments), many authors modified it to suit various purposes, so that today "the Ackermann function" may refer to any of numerous variants of the original function. One common version is the two-argument Ackermann–Péter function developed by Rózsa Péter and Raphael Robinson. This function is defined from the recurrence relation \operatorname(m+1, n+1) = \operatorname(m, \operatorname(m+1, n)) with appropriate Base case (recursion), base cases. Its value grows very rapidly; for example, \o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Function Composition
In mathematics, the composition operator \circ takes two function (mathematics), functions, f and g, and returns a new function h(x) := (g \circ f) (x) = g(f(x)). Thus, the function is function application, applied after applying to . (g \circ f) is pronounced "the composition of and ". Reverse composition, sometimes denoted f \mapsto g , applies the operation in the opposite order, applying f first and g second. Intuitively, reverse composition is a chaining process in which the output of function feeds the input of function . The composition of functions is a special case of the composition of relations, sometimes also denoted by \circ. As a result, all properties of composition of relations are true of composition of functions, such as #Properties, associativity. Examples * Composition of functions on a finite set (mathematics), set: If , and , then , as shown in the figure. * Composition of functions on an infinite set: If (where is the set of all real numbers) is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tetration
In mathematics, tetration (or hyper-4) is an operation (mathematics), operation based on iterated, or repeated, exponentiation. There is no standard mathematical notation, notation for tetration, though Knuth's up arrow notation \uparrow \uparrow and the left-exponent ^b are common. Under the definition as repeated exponentiation, means , where ' copies of ' are iterated via exponentiation, right-to-left, i.e. the application of exponentiation n-1 times. ' is called the "height" of the function, while ' is called the "base," analogous to exponentiation. It would be read as "the th tetration of ". For example, 2 tetrated to 4 (or the fourth tetration of 2) is =2^=2^=2^=65536. It is the next hyperoperation after exponentiation, but before pentation. The word was coined by Reuben Louis Goodstein from tetra- (four) and iterated function, iteration. Tetration is also defined recursively as : := \begin 1 &\textn=0, \\ a^ &\textn>0, \end allowing for the holomorphic function, hol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Large Numbers
Large numbers, far beyond those encountered in everyday life—such as simple counting or financial transactions—play a crucial role in various domains. These expansive quantities appear prominently in mathematics, cosmology, cryptography, and statistical mechanics. While they often manifest as large positive integers, they can also take other forms in different contexts (such as P-adic number). Googology delves into the naming conventions and properties of these immense numerical entities. Since the customary, traditional (non-technical) decimal format of large numbers can be lengthy, other systems have been devised that allows for shorter representation. For example, a billion is represented as 13 characters (1,000,000,000) in decimal format, but is only 3 characters (109) when expressed in exponential format. A trillion is 17 characters in decimal, but only 4 (1012) in exponential. Values that vary dramatically can be represented and compared graphically via logarithmic sca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Knuth
Donald Ervin Knuth ( ; born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist and mathematician. He is a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer science. Knuth has been called the "father of the analysis of algorithms". Knuth is the author of the multi-volume work '' The Art of Computer Programming''. He contributed to the development of the rigorous analysis of the computational complexity of algorithms and systematized formal mathematical techniques for it. In the process, he also popularized the asymptotic notation. In addition to fundamental contributions in several branches of theoretical computer science, Knuth is the creator of the TeX computer typesetting system, the related METAFONT font definition language and rendering system, and the Computer Modern family of typefaces. As a writer and scholar, Knuth created the WEB and CWEB computer programming systems des ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Associativity
In mathematics, the associative property is a property of some binary operations that rearranging the parentheses in an expression will not change the result. In propositional logic, associativity is a Validity (logic), valid rule of replacement for well-formed formula, expressions in Formal proof, logical proofs. Within an expression containing two or more occurrences in a row of the same associative operator, the order in which the Operation (mathematics), operations are performed does not matter as long as the sequence of the operands is not changed. That is (after rewriting the expression with parentheses and in infix notation if necessary), rearranging the parentheses in such an expression will not change its value. Consider the following equations: \begin (2 + 3) + 4 &= 2 + (3 + 4) = 9 \,\\ 2 \times (3 \times 4) &= (2 \times 3) \times 4 = 24 . \end Even though the parentheses were rearranged on each line, the values of the expressions were not altered. Since this holds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
