Talk:History of large numbers

Please see my discussion of Names for Large Numbers. -- Stephen001

Apparently, the person who wrote the part about Indian mathematics wasn't aware of the work of Archimedes, Apollonius, and Diophantus, a Greek triumvirate which is not at all shabby. I have added references to these Greek works, without taking too much away from the Indian part. -ilan

The date for the earliest layers of the Vedic literature is approx. 1700 B.C. not 3500 B.C. even though most of the Rg veda is around 1200 B.C. Please desist from entering wrong information here.

- My own quick note: a brief search reveals quite a few sources associating the historical Indian word "dhvajagranishamani" with the power of 145 rather than the stated 421. None of these are academic sources, but I've yet to see an external source confirming the 421. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.2.161.80 (talk) 19:03, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Large finite numbers
It's a pity that History ended with the transfinite numbers, I think there was room to include the history of large but finite numbers as they appeared in mathematics. Albmont 20:01, 24 August 2007 (UTC)


 * The article mentions something in the Yajur Veda which says that if you subtract purna from purna, you are left with purna. I think they're referring to the hymn "Om purnam adah purnamidam, purnat purnam udacyate, purnasya purnam adaya, purname wawasisyate."  I did some searching online, and it turns out that the hymn is the preface to the Isavasya Upanishad, which is contained in the Yajur Veda.  The English translation is "That is full; this is full, (for) from the full the full (indeed) arises.  When the full is taken from the full, what remains is full indeed."  Hokie Tech (talk) 22:25, 3 November 2008 (UTC)Hokie Tech


 * I've added a short section on modern use of large finite numbers, with a link to a couple of relevant pages - there is quite a bit about it already in the wiki so just needed a link to other pages Robert Walker (talk)

Conlang reference
I removed the following, which appears to me to have been translated from some other language by a computer, or someone who does not speak English (note the incorrect grammar). I am not sure what they are trying to say or what relevance Arahau has to the history of large number names in actual usage.


 * Arahau it is the only conlang, which can to form a numbers like sextillion and above. For example: az - million, zaharg - billion, zahac - quadrillion, zard - pentillion.

Robert Munafo (talk) 15:17, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Early evidence of tetration
Moderator removed my observation that in the Avatamsaka Sutra, chapter 30, the verses contain the first example of tetration in the history of mankind. We shall have to wait until such is vindicated by a historian. The number it amounts to is: 10^^(10^(5*2^120)) Links: Novaloka 1.6.4. The passage to consider —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.87.181.201 (talk) 20:23, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

Archimedes last number of the last order in the last period is , where  which makes . It's easy to make the mistake here to think you have tetration  so the Buddhist series in the Avatamsaka poem must be handled with utmost scrutiny. --Gerard van Novaloka (talk) 20:35, 4 February 2011 (UTC)