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Conway's chained arrow notation (Definition)

Conway's chained arrow notation is a way of writing numbers even larger than those provided by the up arrow notation. We define $m\rightarrow n\rightarrow p=m^{(p+2)}n=m\underbrace{\uparrow\cdots\uparrow}_{p}n$ and $m\rightarrow n=m\rightarrow n\rightarrow 1=m^n$ . Longer chains are evaluated by

$$m\rightarrow\cdots\rightarrow n\rightarrow p\rightarrow 1= m\rightarrow\cdots\rightarrow n\rightarrow p$$

$$m\rightarrow\cdots\rightarrow n\rightarrow 1\rightarrow q=m\rightarrow\cdots\rightarrow n$$

and

$$m\rightarrow\cdots\rightarrow n\rightarrow p+1\rightarrow q+1= m\rightarrow\cdots\rightarrow n\rightarrow (m\rightarrow\cdots\rightarrow n\rightarrow p\rightarrow q+1)\rightarrow q$$

For example:

$\displaystyle 3\rightarrow3\rightarrow2 =$    
$\displaystyle 3\rightarrow(3\rightarrow2\rightarrow2)\rightarrow1 =$    
$\displaystyle 3\rightarrow(3\rightarrow2\rightarrow2) =$    
$\displaystyle 3\rightarrow(3\rightarrow(3\rightarrow1\rightarrow2)\rightarrow1) =$    
$\displaystyle 3\rightarrow(3\rightarrow3\rightarrow1) =$    
$\displaystyle 3^{3^3} =$    
$\displaystyle 3^{27} = 7625597484987$    

A much larger example is:
$\displaystyle 3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow 4\rightarrow 4=$    
$\displaystyle 3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow (3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow 3\rightarrow 4)\rightarrow 3=$    
$\displaystyle 3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow (3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow (3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow 2\rightarrow 4)\rightarrow 3)\rightarrow 3=$    
$\displaystyle 3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow (3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow (3\rightarro... ...ghtarrow 2\rightarrow 1\rightarrow 4)\rightarrow 3)\rightarrow 3)\rightarrow 3=$    
$\displaystyle 3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow (3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow (3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow (3\rightarrow 2)\rightarrow 3)\rightarrow 3)\rightarrow 3=$    
$\displaystyle 3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow (3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow (3\rightarrow 2\rightarrow 9\rightarrow 3)\rightarrow 3)\rightarrow 3$    

Clearly this is going to be a very large number. Note that, as large as it is, it is proceeding towards an eventual final evaluation, as evidenced by the fact that the final number in the chain is getting smaller.




"Conway's chained arrow notation" is owned by Henry.
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See Also: Knuth's up arrow notation

Other names:  chained arrow notation, chained arrow, chained-arrow, chained-arrow notation, Conway notation
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Cross-references: chains, up arrow notation, even, numbers
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This is version 5 of Conway's chained arrow notation, born on 2002-08-24, modified 2004-05-10.
Object id is 3351, canonical name is ConwaysChainedArrowNotation.
Accessed 11880 times total.

Classification:
AMS MSC00A05 (General :: General and miscellaneous specific topics :: General mathematics)

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