Wow, there are more bits in this, after the third iteration (that is, of n = 2048; 2048 times: n = n * 2 ^ n), than there are atoms in the universe. By about 5

Wow, there are more bits in this, after the third iteration (that is, of n = 2048; 2048 times: n = n * 2 ^ n), than there are atoms in the universe. By about 537 orders of magnitude, no less. Don't think we're getting the full value any time soon. Edit: I determined this by trying a logarithmic approach, while not really thinking about what that meant. n = 11 # 1 << 11 == 2048 for i in range(2048): print i, n n += 2 ** n At any point, 1 << n is equivalent to the same thing calculated via n = 2 * n. This works because n is always a power of 2, but it's really only gets you one step closer to the answer. With how many bits are involved here, I can't see how you could possibly calculate this in our universe.