From comments: >No; in fact, in Guy’s article on this problem, he notes that the... | Hacker News

Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit

		zahlman 12 months ago \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Decomposing a Factorial into Large Factors From comments: >No; in fact, in Guy’s article on this problem, he notes that there is a jump of 2 from t(124)=35 to t(125)=37 Huh. Can we actually prove t(N) is monotonic? Jumps like that seem like they could be one-offs in some cases.

intuitionist 12 months ago [–]

Yeah, since t(N) < N, you can use the decomposition for N! and one extra factor (N+1) to get a decomposition for (N+1)! with a smallest part equal to t(N).

zahlman 12 months ago | [–]

Oh, that's much easier than I thought it would be. Nice job being rigorous, too.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact