A Googol
"You, too, can make up your own very large numbers
and give them strange names. Try it. It has a certain charm, especially
if you happen to be nine."
-Carl Sagan, Cosmos
-Carl Sagan, Cosmos
A googol is the number written as 1 followed by 100
zeroes, or
10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.
Using exponential notation, this can be written as
10
100.
A googol is such an incredibly large number that it defies the
imagination. For example, a googol is much greater than
the number of particles in the universe!
The name "googol" was suggested in the 1930's by the nine-year-old nephew of
mathematician Dr. Edward Kasner,
who also suggested the name "googolplex" for the number
10googol,
which, if written out in full, would be 1 followed by a
googol of zeroes.
More names for big numbers.
Last updated January 27, 2002. URL: http://www.stormloader.com/ajy/googol.html For questions or comments email James Yolkowski. Math Lair home page