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What's the largest number you can come up with?

Started by July 28, 2011 03:06 PM
56 comments, last by guywithknife 13 years, 3 months ago

[quote name='Luckless' timestamp='1311881880' post='4841793']
The largest valid response in this thread, +1.


That's a paradox.

Unless you're acknowledging that your response will not be valid. Because if yours is valid, then you will have to add 1 ad infinitum.
[/quote]

Only if you insist on looping over this for no reason.

Run through the thread and find the largest valid response. (It isn't mine to start with, because "The largest Valid Response in this Thread" is not, by itself, a number.) Take that value, add 1.

Operation complete, there is no reason to repeat the procedure.
Old Username: Talroth
If your signature on a web forum takes up more space than your average post, then you are doing things wrong.

[quote name='sooner123' timestamp='1311882010' post='4841795']
[quote name='Luckless' timestamp='1311881880' post='4841793']
The largest valid response in this thread, +1.


That's a paradox.

Unless you're acknowledging that your response will not be valid. Because if yours is valid, then you will have to add 1 ad infinitum.
[/quote]

Only if you insist on looping over this for no reason.

Run through the thread and find the largest valid response. (It isn't mine to start with, because "The largest Valid Response in this Thread" is not, by itself, a number.) Take that value, add 1.

Operation complete, there is no reason to repeat the procedure.
[/quote]

Sorry. You're just wrong.

rip-off did it correctly.

It's not about amount of loops. If you "loop through" once or twice or any amount of times, at the end, yours will then be the largest value in the thread, yet it was defined as the largest value in the thread + 1, and doesn't satisfy its own definition.
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Seriously? "Just wrong", based on what?

Make a list of numbers from 1 to 10.
Find the largest and add 1 to it.
Append new value to the end of the list.
Old Username: Talroth
If your signature on a web forum takes up more space than your average post, then you are doing things wrong.
I've never use BigInteger or any of the equivilants in any language, so my answer is 2^64. If I need a number bigger than that, I probably wont be displaying it without exponents, and so will not be able to "see" the number, let alone give it a name.

I did once implement an infinite-length integer calculator program in pascal, in college, as a programming assignment. But, I never bothered to test it beyond 50 digits, and I cant remember any of those numbers.
Don't thank me, thank the moon's gravitation pull! Post in My Journal and help me to not procrastinate!

I've never use BigInteger or any of the equivilants in any language, so my answer is 2^64. If I need a number bigger than that, I probably wont be displaying it without exponents, and so will not be able to "see" the number, let alone give it a name.

I did once implement an infinite-length integer calculator program in pascal, in college, as a programming assignment. But, I never bothered to test it beyond 50 digits, and I cant remember any of those numbers.


You might mean 2^64 - 1
10.


(This is a deep ArenaNet inside joke. Sorry.)

Wielder of the Sacred Wands
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Seriously? "Just wrong", based on what?


I explained why you were wrong after I said "just wrong"[/font]

I didn't, as you imply, stop at that and not attempt to explain.


Make a list of numbers from 1 to 10.
Find the largest and add 1 to it.
Append new value to the end of the list.
[/quote]

This wasn't what you said and it wasn't the prompt.

You said: "largest valid response in thread" + 1.

If this generated a valid response, it would not be "largest valid response in thread" + 1. it would only be "largest valid response in thread"

if it generated an invalid response, then it was invalid.

rip-off did it correctly. because he had the cleverness to omit his post from the calculation.
a = 1

a = a + 1


What is the value of a?

If you claim my answer is wrong, then the a = a + 1 would compute out to infinity.
Old Username: Talroth
If your signature on a web forum takes up more space than your average post, then you are doing things wrong.
a = a + 1
[solve for a]
Mathematically speaking, isn't this statement false? Or it describes some kind of non-real number that's always greater than itself.
(yes, I know it's supposed to be a step of a procedure, not an equation....)

This is a maths topic, right?

Your 'make a list' post (which describes a procedure) isn't at all equivalent to your first post, which describes a paradoxical statement. Stop trolling.

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