Big Banana (b-notation) | November 2009 |
I was reading the other day (I forget where) about a man searching for 'banana' on the net and, on a whimsy, tried 'bananana'. He got a lot of results so he tried 'banananana'. Still a huge, although slightly smaller, number.
Fascinated, he increased the number of na's in his banana and observed a similar pattern. He gave up somewhere around the bananananananananananananananananananana mark with significant numbers still turning up.
Out of interest I tried searching on banananananananananananananananananananananananananana. The well-lnown search engine came up with the wonderful message "Did you mean: banananananananananananananananananananananananana". I love the literal-mindedness of computers.
Anyway, we were obviously running out of nanas. Whether this is because they don't actually exist or because the index threw up its hands in disgust I don't know. Probably the latter, in which case it is clear that we need a special form of notation to cope with these Very Large Nanas.
I am proposing that we deal with VLNs using 'b' notation. Essentially, this is a b followed by the number of na's. Thus your standard banana is a b2.
I suppose that makes Eric Bana a b1 although that wasn't precisely what I had in mind.
For example, b1000 =
ba
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
nanananananananananananananananananananananananana
There is no reason not to use superscripting either. Thus b1000 could also be written b103.
It would be nice to have larger values as well but you start getting into download and rendering problems. For example, b1000000 is 2 Megabytes and b1000000000 is nearly 2 Gigabytes. Browsers will just freeze up when attempting to render this much data. However, they compress extremely well (unsurprisingly) so I have provided them as zip files.
Until someone tells me otherwise, I am going to claim the VLN record for values posted on the net. Hooray!
b1000000 (b106) zip file (2.1K - expands to 2M)
b1000000000 (b109) zip file (1.9M - expands to 1.9G)