Anyway, I thought it would be fun to have people possibly learn something new while checking out blogs today. It may provide an interesting topic of conversation.
Do you know what the largest number that has a commonly-known specific name is? Well, it is actually called a "googolplex."
A "googol" is 1 followed by 100 zeros. A "googolplex" is a 1 followed by a googol zeros. Another way to write a googolplex is:
It is mind boggling to me how big this number really is. Here are some interesting facts about a googol and googolplex:
- A googol is greater than the number of elementary particles in the observable universe.
- Since a googolplex is one followed by a googol zeros, 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.
- A googol is also greater than the number of Planck times elapsed since the Big Bang which is estimated at around 8*1060. Therefore a list of the state of every particle at every measurable unit of time since the Big Bang would have nowhere near a googolplex entries (around 8*10140).
- Thinking of this another way, consider printing the digits of a googolplex in unreadable, one-point font. One-point font is .3514598 mm 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. The time it would take to write such a number also renders the task implausible: if a person can write two digits per second, it would take around 1.1 × 1082 times the age of the universe to write down a googolplex.
- The American mathematician Edward Kasner first used the term "googol" in 1938. The name for this very large number was suggested by Kasner's nine-year-old nephew.
- The company "Google" is a misspelling of the number googol. I'm not exactly sure if it was deliberate or not--different sources say different things. The headquarters of the Google company is called the "Googleplex". Now you know how Google got its name (if you didn't already know).
2 comments:
You completely lost me, Lindsay. I'll store that info away - someday I may need it! You continue to impress me with your math abilities. I'm glad your presentation went well.
Well, technically I didn't come up with any of that information on my own. I simply copied and pasted those facts from Wikipedia. I don't quite understand the "Planck times" stuff myself. I just think it is a fun piece of trivia to know the name of the largest number with a commonly-known name. Instead of saying, "infinity," you can throw "googolplex" at them and sound like you are really intelligent (or they may think you are just making up a word). You also know where Google company got their name.
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