How Big is Graham's Number? (feat Ron Graham)

Why HN readers recommended it

HN commenters recommend it for hearing Graham himself and for its clear introduction to up-arrow notation and enormous numbers.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

Numberphile

Topic

very large numbers

Format

interview

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

4

HN mentions in dataset

6

Recommendation years in dataset

2014–2024

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• Is loglogloglog...log the only beast that can conquer Knuth's arrow notation? (x ↑↑↑↑...↑ n) Every time I watch videos about arrow notation or, more famously, Graham's number, my head explodes :) [VIDEO] Big big numbers are really, really cool!

• My brain melts every time I watch this video [1] from Numberphile on Graham's number. They also had another video [2] with Ron Graham himself :) [1]: [LINK] [2]: [VIDEO]

• If math can make you feel awe, you've got to watch the Numberphile series on very big numbers. They're constants used in proofs that are specific, well-defined integers known to be finite, but so huge that the physical universe does not have enough particles (or …