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The Powers That Be
Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 5:04 pm
by Project hash brown
Am i supposed to find a calculator that will show all of the numbers? Does anyone on here know of one?
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 2:49 pm
by darthludi
If I calculate (17**39)**11 I'm getting a number with 528 digits, which (conveniently) is 16*33. Now if I split that number into blocks of 33 digits, and write down the last digit of each block, I get a certain 16 digit number starting with 26 and ending with 07. But I'm told that this is not the correct answer.
Now, if I take the first digit, and every 33rd from there (1st, 34th, 67th, ...) I get a number starting with 76 and ending with 77, which apparently is wrong too.
Do I need to apply any conversion? Or did my calculator (bc) do something wrong here? Or did I misinterpret the description (non-native english speaker)?
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 3:25 pm
by gfoot
You should submit the 1st, 34th, etc digits. One of the digits you quoted (76......77) was wrong. Maybe you miscounted the digits, if you did it by hand.
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2009 9:05 pm
by darthludi
No miscount, looked at the wrong column after I broke it into groups. Shouldn't do these at 1 in the morning. Thanks

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2009 3:24 pm
by karma-fusebox
gfoot wrote:You should submit the 1st, 34th, etc digits
right. but i wouldnt have solved this one without your hint.. the question is easily misunderstood as:
33rd = the "first, most significant"

66th
99th
...
Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:30 pm
by mcjohn
Karen's power tools calculator has come in handy for this and other challenges; it allows for long values.
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:46 pm
by retool2
I've made my own multiply function
if u know the math trick
(17**39)**11 = 17**(39*11)
Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:26 am
by karma-fusebox
that trick is pretty useless here. either way you have a hard time without the right tools..
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 4:17 pm
by Project hash brown
How do i enter this sum into Karen's power tools? Also so far my computer has been unable to come with anything up to 17^16, so i don't see how I'm supposed to complete this task.
(Ive times 17 by 17 and then I've been pressing = to times it by 17 over and over again, I've only been ably to get to 17^16, after that it takes around half an hour per sum.
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 7:39 pm
by vielinko
Project hash brown wrote:How do i enter this sum into Karen's power tools? Also so far my computer has been unable to come with anything up to 17^16, so i don't see how I'm supposed to complete this task.
(Ive times 17 by 17 and then I've been pressing = to times it by 17 over and over again, I've only been ably to get to 17^16, after that it takes around half an hour per sum.
maybe u will need a program to solve this

... I use Java->BigInteger to did it.
________
Ford 300 (1963) specifications
Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 8:19 pm
by bsguedes
Powerful hand calculators are useful here too...
Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 10:42 pm
by Mad Hacker
python can do it, it might take a while though
Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:24 am
by therethinker
Really? In python, it was a one-liner for me that took no noticeable time to run.
Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:02 pm
by Mad Hacker
oops, i was thinking of a different challenge
Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 8:23 pm
by Masti6
Any powerful web calculator that anyone would recommend?
MS Calculator is totally useless, and I don't know how the script goes in PHP, nor do I know any other coding language to solve the problem with.
Thanks in advance.