A number so large it brings us to the edge of mathematics 🤯🔢

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We’re reaching the limit of what’s knowable with mathematics, with the uncovering of a number so large it’s hard to even describe.

Busy Beaver numbers are used to describe the longest possible run-times of ‘Turing machines’ - a theoretical model of computation conceived by Alan Turing. These numbers are surprisingly hard to figure out.

But after uncovering the fifth Busy Beaver number in 2021, an online community of mathematicians now thinks they’ve figured out the sixth number - and it’s beyond massive. What does this mean for the nature of mathematics?

Hear the full story on The world, the universe and us, a news podcast for the insatiably curious, hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet.

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