OFFSET
0,25
COMMENTS
Conjecture: max(a(n)) = 4.
Assuming that A020665(2) = 86, A020665(3) = 68, A020665(5) = 58, and A020665(7) = 35, this conjecture is true, since in that case the largest power of a decimal digit that has no 0 is 7^35, and of those powers p none have a(p) > 3. The only n for which a(n) = 4 are those where one iteration goes to 6^2, 7^2, 6^3, 7^3, or 2^9.
EXAMPLE
For n = 29: a(29) = 4 because for the number 29 there are 4 steps of defined iteration: {2^9 = 512}, {(5^1)^2 = 25}, {2^5 = 32}, {3^2 = 9}.
PROG
(PARI) iter(n)=my(v=eval(Vec(Str(n)))); v[1]^prod(i=2, #v, v[i])
a(n)=my(k=0); while(n>9, k++; n=iter(n)); k
CROSSREFS
KEYWORD
nonn,base
AUTHOR
Jaroslav Krizek, May 01 2010
EXTENSIONS
Corrected, extended, comment, and program from Charles R Greathouse IV, Aug 03 2010
STATUS
approved