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 in computing because they represent the value of bit N of a binary number (counting from 0) and the number of things you can count with an N bit number.
[ Jargon File ]
(1994-12-06)