Hyperoperation

In mathematics, the hyperoperation sequence is an infinite sequence of arithmetic operations (called hyperoperations) that starts with the unary operation of successor (n = 0), then continues with the binary operations of addition (n = 1), multiplication (n = 2), and exponentiation (n = 3), after which the sequence proceeds with further binary operations extending beyond exponentiation, using right-associativity. For the operations beyond exponentiation, the nth member of this sequence is named by Reuben Goodstein after the Greek prefix of n suffixed with -ation (such as tetration (n = 4), pentation (n = 5), hexation (n = 6), etc.) and can be written as using n − 2 arrows in Knuth's up-arrow notation. Each hyperoperation may be understood recursively in terms of the previous one by:

It may also be defined according to the recursion rule part of the definition, as in Knuth's up-arrow version of the Ackermann function:

This can be used to easily show numbers much larger than those which scientific notation can, such as Skewes' number and googolplexplex, but there are some numbers which even they cannot easily show, such as Graham's number and TREE(3).

This recursion rule is common to many variants of hyperoperations (see below).

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