On 17 December 2013 19:01, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: > I know. I was just taking 10^80 to mean "a very big number" which of > course depends on context. I generally do applied physics and engineering > and so 10^80+1 = 10^80 for physical variables. >
That reminds me of a joke... ...but you've probably heard it already, so I will stick to the point. 10^80 + 1 may happen to be a prime number (I leave the proof (or disproof) up to Stephen Paul King as an exercise in applied mathematical reasoning) in which case it is very different from 10^80 in terms of its mathematical properties, even though it is the same when used physically "for all intents and purposes" - since we already know that 10^80 is divisible by 10 (how did I work that, out without even being able to imagine 10^80 objects? It's like magic...! :) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
