Re: Largest digit with a name?

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#710

From: Kurt Foster
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 1996 00:00

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Calvin Li (ccli@ccnga.uwaterloo.ca) wrote:

: I remember reading something akin to this.  It was the largest number ever
: to be used in a proof.  It was called Skewes' Number, and the notation that
: they used was 3|3|3 ...  The book is "The Lore of Large Numbers", and I
: think it was by Yaglom and Yaglom, but I'm probably mistaken.  Oh, and it 
: was near the end.
:
     Wrong, wrong, wrong!  Skewes' number is 10^(10^(10^34)), and was the 
largest number used in a mathematical proof for many years, until being 
superseded.
     Skewes' number is mentioned in "The Lore of Large Numbers", but it 
is NOT "3|3|3 ...".  The book was written before Graham employed that 
huge number in a proof.  Also, the book was by Philip Davis.

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From: kfoster@rainbow.rmii.com (Kurt Foster)
Subject: Re: Largest digit with a name?
Date: 1996/01/27
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