2**2**2**2**2 wrong? Bug?

[Paul McGuire]

On Jul 9, 11:21 pm, "Jim Langston" <tazmas... at rocketmail.com> wrote:
> In Python 2.5 on intel, the statement
> 2**2**2**2**2
> evaluates to>>> 2**2**2**2**2
>
> 200352993040684646497907235156025575044782547556975141926501697371089405955­63114
> 530895061308809333481010382343429072631818229493821188126688695063647615470­29165
> 041871916351587966347219442930927982084309104855990570159318959639524863372­36720
<snip>

Exponentiation is right associative, so this is the same as:

2**(2**(2**(2**2)))
2**2**2**4
2**2**16
2**65536

2=10**0.3010, so 2**65536 is approx 10**19726

There are 19730 digits in your answer, so this seems to be at least in
the ball park.

-- Paul