Which is bigger, or ?
is bigger: = 1.00000 × and = 1.09951 × .
How to work it out
- 1
Compute both exactly: = 10000000000000000 and = 1099511627776.
- 2
So is bigger.
- 3
The reason: taking logs, against is the same as against . The function rises until and falls afterwards. Both 10 and 16 are past e, where the function is decreasing, so the larger exponent loses and > .
LaTeX source of the formulas on this page
\[ 10^{16} = 1.00000\times 10^{16}\ >\ 16^{10} = 1099511627776 \]
\[ \frac{\ln 10}{10}\ >\ \frac{\ln 16}{16} \]Questions
Which is bigger, or ?
is bigger: = 1.00000 × and = 1.09951 × .