Do you have the exact number for the 8th iteration ?

vog · on Aug 16, 2013

Unfortunately, no.

The script actually calculates strings, then counts the bangbangs. The 7th iteration took about 4 GiB RAM (temporarily, and 2 GiB in the end). Using this approach, I don't think there's enough RAM for the 8th iteration on this planet.

The algorithm would have to be optimized quite a lot before it could calculate the exact 8th value.

vog · on Aug 16, 2013

Okay, I finally found a way that gets us one more iteration. The exact next value is:

168668479408755201

Assuming your approximation "7 Quadrillion" means 7e15 (rather than 7e24 [1]), this is about 24 times as much.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrillion

shadykiller · on Aug 16, 2013

I am still skeptical for this . . the basic approximation formula gives a ballpark .. and when I put 159 million in the formula it gives me 12640500079500000 which is 12 quadrillion ... http://www.tools4noobs.com/online_tools/number_spell_words/

Reason I say this is - let's assume all 159 million bangs are expanded then 159*159 millions = 25 quadrillion

vog · on Aug 16, 2013

Sorry, this was a mistake. The correct number is:

16866847940875521

which is just 2.4 times as much as your approximation.

It would be nice if somebody could confirm my numbers indepdently.

shadykiller · on Aug 16, 2013

Yes . .16 quadrillion seems closer

robinhouston · on Aug 16, 2013

The exact number for the 9th iteration is 189345699699803478502456213711361.

Here is an algorithm for computing them efficiently: https://gist.github.com/robinhouston/6251775