Question about Arbitrary-Precision Calculator?

Okay, there is a free calculator program online- and not just an ordinary one either. It is capable of finding the factorial of a google (i.e. 10^100) in addition to lots of other things just as logarithms...etc etc. The only problem with it is that it's written in Linux. My question is: Can linux be converted into whatever Windows XP uses? And, if so, would any of you be willing to do it, or direct me to a program that could? By the way, if anyone wants to know, I can direct you to the site where this calculator can be found. (No, it doesn't not contain a virus. The site is old and can be trusted. Check into it yourself if you're suspicious).

Correction: The program is based in perl code. Does windows xp support this?

[Mystwalker]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Correction: The program is based in perl code. Does windows xp support this?

I found ActivePerl. But as I don't use Perl, I can't say if it is the best choice...

Thanks, I found that as well and downloaded, but I didn't reply back. Thanks anyway. Now I'm looking for the script code for the calculator.

[JFB]

Hi.
I'm not a math specialist.

I use Mupad Light 2.5.3 for Windows, which is a free version,
to expand primes such as
121*2^383061-1 (115,315 digits).

It requires a bit of patience --and CPU.
The program kindly overflows if you give it too much.
(M41 is a bit too much)

Copyright 1998-2003 SciFace Software
GmbH & Co. KG, All Rights Reserved.
MuPAD Light is distributed by courtesy of the
University of Paderborn, Germany.

see http://www.mupad.org/download/
then go below to Free MuPAD versions

Hope this helps.
JF.

The Hypercalc program i'm talking about is virtually impossible to overflow. For example, the owner says you can take a number (such as your phone number) or about 6 million- and then take that number to the power of the national deficit factorial without the program overflowing. (i.e. ~6 million raised to the factorial 7 trillion power). For those of you who don't know what a factorial (!) is, here are some examples. 5! means 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5. Another example is 11! which means 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 x 10 x 11. In other words, a factorial means that you take every whole number starting with one up to whatever the factorial of whatever number you're doing is. A bigger example would be 7,625,597,484,987! = 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x ......x 2,455,909 x 2,455,910 x 2,455,911.....x 5,555,789,102 x 5,555,789,203 x...... 7,625,597,484,986 x 7,625,597,484,987. This results in an unbelievably large number, one that would overflow any other calculator long before reaching this point. In fact, it's overflow point is so large that it can't be expressed with any type of regular notation. (and no, it doesn't keep every single digit in memory as that would be impossible- but it does keep a lot- you can specify how many).
You could even take 6,000,000 or any other number of such size to a large superfactorial power. A superfactorial (!!) can be explained like this.
7!! = 1! x 2! x 3! x 4! x 5! x 6! x 7!. In other words, it's the exact same as a factorial, but instead of just regular whole numbers, you're taking the factorial of whole numbers. I think you get the idea.
There are also things called hyperfactorials, but i'm not sure how they operate. It's a very amazing calculator. I downloaded the Perl script needed to run it, now I just need to find the program script.

[Mystwalker]

AFAIK, the term 7!! usually refers to 7 * 5 * 3 * 1...

A superfactorial is written as 7$.

[Peter Nelson]

Firstly, the PERL interpreter is readily available for Windows platforms so you should have no problems with this.

Secondly, you may assume that anyone reading this forum knows what a factorial is, (or will look it up readily). The other math concepts discussed here are much more advanced. The explanation of what you mean by superfactorial was however, appropriate.

Thirdly,

Details about precision etc above are a bit vague.

I was able to google for "Hypercalc" and perl and found it at

http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/perl/hypercalc.txt

A URL like this would have assisted your original post immensely.

The comments explains that hypercalc uses logs once it gets beyond its capacity. And, as numbers get bigger, the precision decreases.

Observations are that a version in a compiled language like C would run much faster than a perl implementation.

Some people might dismiss this as a gimmick, merely to put down someone who is showing off their shiny new Texas Instruments scientific calculator by illustrating its inadequacies in number range etc.

Although prime95 does not have capability or need to work with such big numbers, this calculator might be useful to people in fields of science, engineering or mathematics. The method used in the source code might also be borrowed to incorporate the algorithm into another program, if appropriate.

[Peter Nelson]

Just to pick up on the original post,

google is the name of a search engine and/or portal site www.google.com

The verb "to google" is now in some dictionaries as meaning to research using online means including aforementioned search engine. eg to google a date would be to investigate the background of someone you intended dating before meeting them. eg. their workplace, credit rating, whatever else you may find.

A GOOGOL is a big number = 10^100 which is what you meant to say.
See www.googol.com

The explanation there also describes a googolhedron. LOL.

Please be careful not to confuse the two or google.com might sue you for trademark infringement (they have in the past). Interestingly, although they were opposed, their trademark does not extend to the now common verb use of the same word. ie to google.

Similarly, maybe in future, a verb "to Microsoft" someone might be defined as to take advantage of a monopoly situation to lock customers into exhorbitant fees and lock out competitors by proprietory standards, poor security, and buying or suing them. (or any combination of the above). The word is already synonymous with the above practices in the minds of many.

Of course this is not yet in the dictionary so I won't use the term in case I'm accused of libel :-)