Through some miscellaneous reading I have stumbled upon Graham's number and more precisely, a method of calculating the $d$ rightmost digits of the number. The exact method of calculation seems straightforward through modular exponentiation. However, there is the claim that all power towers of height at least $d + 2$ will have their $d$ rightmost digits constant and independent of the topmost term of the tower. (At the risk of being too verbose, I redirect you to the Wikipedia article on Graham's number, bottom section.) I was wondering if anyone can provide a proof for the given statement.
Asked
Active
Viewed 592 times
2
-
1This should follow from an iterated application of Carmichael's theorem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmichael_function – Qiaochu Yuan Aug 02 '11 at 23:11
-
This answer elsewhere is directly related and gives a reference. – r.e.s. May 11 '21 at 16:46
1 Answers
1
That passage in wikipedia is referenced, and the reference includes a discussion on why that's true.

Glorfindel
- 3,955

davidlowryduda
- 91,687
-
The proof in the reference doesn't seem to cover the case where the topmost term is arbitrary. That is, the proof seems to break down if $f(0) \neq p$ – EuYu Aug 03 '11 at 01:43