4 ms·
There are a lot of easily describable primes, like the Mersenne primes. A lot of numbers can be described in fewer bits than directly. This is not always the ca
by cormacrelf 9y ago
There are a lot of easily describable primes, like the Mersenne primes. A lot of numbers can be described in fewer bits than directly. This is not always the case, but you could just keep looking for another more easily describable prime or broaden the search space to include non-destructive modifications of the data you're representing.
- mikeash 9y agoThis is just data compression. Most strings can’t be compressed, and nearly all strings can’t be compressed by more than a small amount.
- dorgo 9y ago>nearly all strings can’t be compressed by more than a small amount. source?
- mikeash 9y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeonhole_principle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeonhole_principle As you increase length, the number of possible strings grows exponentially. There are only a few (relatively) much smaller strings you can map to.