A googol is the large number 10¹⁰⁰, that is, the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeroes. The term was coined in 1938 by nine-year-old Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner. Kasner announced the concept in his book Mathematics and the Imagination. File links The following pages link to this file: Alchemy Ada Adventure Apartheid Abbreviation Airplane (disambiguation) Abduction Alder Anno Domini Air ABC (disambiguation) Ad hominem Afghan AD Aether Aba Anus Affinity Ai AZ Albinism Accumulator Binary Chess Computer Carbon Cow Cricket (disambiguation) Collection Convex Culture Ceramics Case Creation Crow (disambiguation... Wiktionary is a sister project to Wikipedia intended to be a free wiki dictionary (thesaurus, lexicon therein) in every language. ... For information on how large numbers are named in English, see names of large numbers. ... Numbers in mathematics A number is an abstract entity used originally to describe quantity. ... In mathematics and computer science, a numerical digit is a symbol, e. ... Zero redirects here. ... 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Milton Sirotta (born c. ... A mathematician is a person whose area of study and research is mathematics. ... Edward Kasner (1878 - 1955) was an American mathematician. ...

A googol is "approximately" equal to the factorial of 70, and its only prime factors are 2 and 5. In binary it would take up 333 bits. In mathematics, the factorial of a natural number n is the product of the positive integers less than or equal to n. ... In number theory, the prime factors of a positive integer are the prime numbers that divide into that integer exactly, without leaving a remainder. ... The binary or base-two numeral system is a system for representing numbers in which a radix of two is used; that is, each digit in a binary numeral may have either of two different values. ... A bit (abbreviated b) is the most basic information unit used in computing and information theory. ...

The googol is of no particular significance in mathematics, nor does it have any practical uses. Kasner created it to illustrate the difference between an unimaginably large number and infinity, and in this role it is sometimes used in mathematics teaching. History Main article: History of mathematics In addition to recognizing how to count concrete objects, prehistoric peoples also recognized how to count abstract quantities, like time -- days, seasons, years. ... Infinity has discrete meanings in mathematics, philosophy, theology and everyday life. ...

Writing out a googol

A googol can be written in conventional notation, as follows:

1 googol = 10¹⁰⁰ = 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

Relation to -illion number names

Using the short scale, a Googol is equal to ten duotrigintillion. Long scale is the English translation of the French term échelle longue, which designates a system of numeric names in which the word billion means a million millions. ... The standard dictionary numbers Throughout this article, exponential or scientific notation is used. ...

The shrinking googol

Back when it was named in 1938, the googol was undeniably large, and from a physical standpoint, a googol of anything would not fit in the known universe. However, with the invention of fast computers and fast algorithms, computation with numbers the size of a googol has become routine. For example, even the difficult problem of prime factorization is now fairly accessible for 100 digit numbers. In mathematics, the integer prime-factorization (also known as prime decomposition) problem is this: given a positive integer, write it as a product of prime numbers. ...

The largest number that can be represented by a typical pocket calculator for high school or scientific use is slightly less than a googol (e.g. 9.9999999 E+99, i.e. 9.999999910⁹⁹, or 0.99999999 googol). However, some models allow exponents larger than 99.

Trivia

Googol was the answer to the million-pound question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire when Major Charles Ingram attempted to defraud the quiz show on 10 September 2001. The pound sterling, which strictly speaking refers to basic currency unit of sterling, now the pound, can generally refer to the currency of the United Kingdom (UK). ... Logo from the UK version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a television game show which offers very large cash prizes for correctly answering successive multiple-choice questions. ... Charles Ingram is an ex-British Army United Kingdom by being accused of cheating on the television show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Despite later being convicted of conspiracy and deception, Ingram maintains he did not cheat. ... September 10 is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years). ... 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

If we drew a regular polygon with a googol sides that was 10²⁷ times the size of the known universe, it would still appear circular, even on the scale of a Planck length. The deepest visible-light image of the cosmos. ... The Planck length is the natural unit of length, denoted by . ...

A googol is greater than the number of particles in the known universe, which has been variously estimated from 10⁷² up to 10⁸⁷. The deepest visible-light image of the cosmos. ...

A googolplex is 1 followed by a googol of zeroes, or ten raised to the power of a googol: 10^googol = . A googolplex is the number , that is, 1 followed by a googol zeroes. ...

Since a googol plus 1 is the number of digits in a googolplex, it would therefore not be possible to write down or store the digits of a googolplex in decimal notation, even if all the matter in the known universe were converted into paper and ink or disk drives.

The Internet search engine Google was named as a pun on this number. The original founders were going for 'Googol', but ended up with 'Google' due to a spelling mistake. Larry Page: "Lucas Pereira: 'You idiots, you spelled 'Googol' wrong!' But this was good, because google.com was available and googol.com was not. Now most people spell 'Googol' 'Google', so it worked out OK in the end." The success of the Google search engine was mainly due to its powerful PageRank algorithm and its simple, easy-to-use interface. ... Google, Inc. ... A pun (also known as paronomasia) is a deliberate confusion of similar-sounding words or phrases for comic or serious effect. ... There is more than one person with the name Larry Page or a variation: Larry Page the British singer and manager, see: Larry Page (British singer and manager) Larry E. Page the co-founder of Google, see: Lawrence E. Page This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists...

See also

• Large number
• Names of large numbers

For information on how large numbers are named in English, see names of large numbers. ... The standard dictionary numbers Throughout this article, exponential or scientific notation is used. ...

References

• Kasner, Edward & Newman, James Roy Mathematics and the Imagination (London: Penguin, 1940; New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967; Dover Pubns, April 2001, ISBN 0486417034).
• 'Searching for the birth of the googol' (http://afr.com/articles/2004/06/18/1087245103935.html)
• 'An evening with Googles Marissa Mayer' (http://alan.blog-city.com/read/1003011.htm)
• 'Google and Larry Page' (http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/000032.html)