A googolplex is the number 10^(10^100) (or 10^10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 10googol), that is, 1 followed by a googol zeroes. The term googol was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner. Googolplex was coined by Kasner to define an especially large number by extension from his nephew's idea.
A googol is greater than the number of particles in the known universe, which has been variously estimated from 1072 up to 1087. Since this is less than the number of zeroes in a googolplex, it would not be possible to write down or store a googolplex in decimal notation, even if all the matter in the known universe were converted into paper and ink or disk drives.
Thinking of this another way, consider printing the digits of a googolplex in unreadable, 1-point font. TeX 1pt font is .3514598mm per digit, which means it would take about 3.5 * 1096 meters to write in one point font. The known universe is estimated at 7.4 * 1026 meters in diameter, which means the distance to write the digits would be about 4.7 * 1069 times the diameter of the known universe.
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15 comments:
I hate to be a math major about this, but wouldn't it just be easier to say 10^(10^100)? I mean, that IS why we have scientific notation. *ranting* And what would such a number be used for that it would need it's own word? It's not like it's the Natural Log or something that has significance or anything...... *raving* and even the most advanced calculaters don't deal with that many zeros so even THEY would put it into scientific notation..... and, uh.... *crickets chirping* uh.... nevermind, that's a good number.
"it would not be possible to write down or store a googolplex in decimal notation"
That's the cool part!
And people think I'm a nerd?!
;)
Wow... I'm confused.
huh. ;)
OK, so if it is impossible to write in scientific notation, then we would call it infinity, because any number that large is beyond the human scope. Math majors are all about quick and dirty. If we can't do it with our pencil (this is for Brooke) we're not interested.
ok, Julie, take a deep breathe and re-read the article. It's not impossible to write in "scientific notation". It's impossible to write in "decimal notation". It's not infinity, it's just that there aren't enough "particles of matter" in the universe to be able to form enough zeros.
*finding my happy place* that *shaky sigh* sounds like *counting to 10^(10^100)* infinity.
;)
*notice he said known Universe
Try writing it Hex next time
Me too, Jake. Twice.
that' crazy!! couple questions: how much of this math did you do yourself? is this what you do @ work b/c you don'd do anything but chat w/ peeople and play w/ your cat? how bored did you ahve to get to figure somthing like that that out? :)
meg
ps- dont forget to pick up your camera tomorrow night!! (it got put to good use while i had it so it DOES still work!)
I think that's how many beers uncle harvey downed before he tried to prove that he could fit the garden hose up his nose, last week.
wait... I was in KC last week
And I wasn't near a garden hose...
And I don't have an uncle harvey.
nevermind.
what were we talking about?
blah blah
googolplex rocks!
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