MAY 3, 2001<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Old Challenge.<\/b>\u00a0What is the largest positive number that you can represent with three, distinct standard mathematical symbols, such as 8×9? The smallest?<\/p>\n
Answer.<\/b>\u00a0Eric Brahinsky found both the large 89<\/sup>!, with over a billion digits, and the small .19<\/sup>\u00a0= .000000001. A number of readers found the second place winners: the large 789<\/sup>, with over a hundred million digits, and the small 8-9<\/sup>\u00a0= .000000007…<\/p>\n New Challenge.<\/b>\u00a0Al Zimmermann reports that:<\/p>\n A few years ago I bought a candy bar at the concession stand in a movie theater. I paid with a $20 bill. My change was a thick wad of bills accompanied by the apology, “Sorry for all the singles, but I only have one Ten left and I want to save it in case I need it later.”<\/p>\n Does this make any sense? What is the best strategy for making change at a concession stand?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Copyright 2001, Frank Morgan.<\/p>\n Send answers, comments, and new questions by email to\u00a0Frank.Morgan@williams.edu,<\/a>\u00a0to be eligible for\u00a0Flatland\u00a0<\/i>and other book awards. Winning answers will appear in the next Math Chat. Math Chat appears on the first and third Thursdays of each month. Prof. Morgan’s homepage is at\u00a0www.williams.edu\/Mathematics\/fmorgan.<\/a><\/p>\n THE MATH CHAT BOOK,<\/a>\u00a0including a $1000 Math Chat Book\u00a0QUEST,\u00a0<\/a>questions and answers, and a list of past challenge winners, is now available from the MAA (800-331-1622).<\/p>\n MAY 3, 2001 Old Challenge.\u00a0What is the largest positive number that you can represent with three, distinct standard mathematical symbols, such as 8×9? The smallest? Answer.\u00a0Eric Brahinsky found both the large 89!, with over a billion digits, and the small .19\u00a0= .000000001. A number of readers found the second place winners: the large 789, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2965,"featured_media":0,"parent":3459,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3564","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2965"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3565,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3564\/revisions\/3565"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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