2**2**2**2**2 wrong? Bug?

[Terry Reedy]

"Evan Klitzke" <evan at yelp.com> wrote in message 
news:cfb58d850707111747x4b83cb88wcaf45437e8e14511 at mail.gmail.com...
| On 7/11/07, Gabriel Genellina <gagsl-py2 at yahoo.com.ar> wrote:
| > Just for curiosity: This helps to find the answer to the problem "Which 
is
| > the largest number that can be written with only 3 digits?"
| > Some people stop at 999, others try 99**9 and 9**99, and the winner is
| > 9**9**9, or:
| >
| > |   9
| > |  9
| > | 9
| >
| > Sorry, couldn't resist.
|
| But you can append ! (i.e. factorial) indefinitely without adding any
| digits to make the number arbitrarily large ;-)

But as Gabriel showed, 9**9**9 in standard math pen-and-paper or 
chalk-and-blackboard notation, not the squished computer linear imitation 
thereof, uses three nines and nothing else ;-)

tjr