two-to-the-N

two-to-the-N

An amount much larger than N but smaller than infinity."I have 2-to-the-N things to do before I can go out for lunch"means you probably won't show up.

Numbers of the form two-to-the-N are very important incomputing because they represent the value of bit N of abinary number (counting from 0) and the number of things youcan count with an N bit number.