h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It means "raised to the power of". It's pretty standard in programming languages, Excel formulas, etc.

This was the hardest one to spot so far. I think we'll soon need more mathematical functions. We could use arctan(4º) = 45, I suppose. That should help us.

((4²-4º) * 4²) + 4 = 244

Sorry to be so daft, but I have no idea what 'raise to the power of' means, and I can't follow how you get to your 243

And if we're allowing arctan(4º) = 45, we would also allow arcsin(4º) = 90 and arccos(4º) = 0, although the last one isn't very useful.

OK, does this help?

To explain (4-4º)^(4+4º) = 243 ...

(4-4º) = 3
(4+4º) = 5

3^5 = 3 raised to the power of 5
= 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3
= 243

Oh yes, thanks , it's like the 4³ then, just with larger numbers than 3. Didn't you limit this to ³ earlier ?

I did limit it to three for a couple of reasons:

1) "squared" and "cubed" are common functions
2) We have no ascii character for superscript numbers higher than three.

If you want higher numbers, then you'll have to make them using your four fours.

Yes, right, I see the difference now

And when we need it later, arccos(-4º) = 180.

When I get a moment, I'll formally define the domains for these functions, in case there are any mathematical pedants watching.

I'll cut and paste and save all these functions in one place, then I'll not have to go back to several pages to look for them.

Here's a few things you can do with a single 4:

4° = 1
4² = 16
4³ = 64
SQRT(4) = 2
SQRT(4³) = 8
(4²)² = 256
4! = 24
arctan(4°) = 45
arcsin(4°) = 90
arccos(-(4°)) = 180

Thanks, I've saved all the functions which were unknown to me ( i.e. everything except the squared, cubed,raised to the power of and squareroot ones. We don't differentiate between cubed and squared and 'raised to the power of', we just say 'hoch' - and then put the number we want/need, e.g. 4 hoch 2 =4x4= 16; 4 hoch 3 =4x4x4=64; 4 hoch 5 = 4x4x4x4x4=1024 and so on. )

Not really sure which one is right ( first you said arccos(-4°), then you said arcos (-(4°)), I'll go with the first version ( it's 'shorter')


arccos(-4°)+4³+4°x4°=245

arccos(-4°)+4³+4°+4°=246

arccos(-4°)+4³+SQRT(4)+4°=247

arccos(-4°)+4³+SQRT(4)+SQRT(4)=248 ( alternatively: arccos(-4°)+4³+4x4°=248 )

arccos(-4°)+4³+4+4°=249

arccos(-4°)+4³+4+SQRT(4)=250

(4²)²-4-4/4=251
(4²)²-4+4-4=252
(4²)²-4+4/4=253
(4²)²-SQRT(4)+4-4=254
(4²)²-4°+4-4=255
(4²)²*444°=256
(4²)²+4°+4-4=257
(4²)²+SQRT(4)+4-4=258
(4²)²+4-4/4=259
(4²)²+4-4+4=260
(4²)²+4+4/4=261

p.s. I prefer arccos(-(4°)) as it's not ambiguous.
(-4)°=1 whereas -(4°)=-1

Hi Icy, that's ok, at least I got away with being lazy once

(4²)²+4+4°+4°=262

(4²)²+4+4-4°=263

(4²)²+4+4/4°=264
(4²)²+4xSQRT(4)+4°=265
(4²)²+4+4+SQRT(4)=266

(4²)²+SQRT(4³)+4-4°=267
(4²)²+4+4+4=268
(4²)²+SQRT(4³)+4+4°=269
(4²)²+SQRT(4³)+4+SQRT(4)=270
(4²)²+4²-4/4=271
(4²)²+4²+4-4=272
(4²)²+4²+4/4=273

(4²)²+4²+4-SQRT(4)=274
(4²)²+4²+4-4°=275
(4²)²+4²+4*4°=276
(4²)²+4²+4+4°=277
(4²)²+4²+4+SQRT(4)=278
(4²)²+4²+SQRT(4³)-4°=279
(4²)²+4²+4+4=280
(4²)²+4²+SQRT(4³)+4°=281
(4²)²+4²+SQRT(4³)+SQRT(4)=282