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0 pointscontravariant5y ago0 comments

I'm confused, 2^14 = 16384 is slightly more than 4 orders of magnitude, where did you get 20 from?

0 comments

An "order of magnitude" has no precise numerical meaning, it depends on what base you're working in. If the log of the number in base b increases by 1, you've increased 1 order of magnitude with respect to that base. (I don't know why the parent said "20", my instinct is to say 14 orders of magnitude here.)

contravariantOP5y ago

I've usually heard it being used to describe powers of 10. I'd be willing to accept 14 orders of magnitude since we're talking about powers of 2, but I still can't figure out where they got 20 from. Hence my question.

user59944615y ago

One billion is 14 orders. We're talking billionS, that's a fair bit more (pun intended).

craftinator5y ago

Maybe they forgot that Windows calculator doesn't respect order of operations...

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