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1 Billion is Tiny in an Alternate Universe: Introduction to p-adic Numbers

A 22-minute video by Eric Rowland about algorithms and data structures, on the Mathematics shelf. It came up in r/math, in a thread called “What are some of your favorite math explainer videos that aren’t from mathologer, numberphile, or 3b1b?”.

Eric Rowland, Video, 22 min, 2022, on the Mathematics shelf

The p-adic numbers are bizarre alternative number systems that are extremely useful in number theory. They arise by changing our notion of what it means for a number to be large. As a real number, 1 billion is huge. But as a 10-adic number, it is tiny! #SoME2