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| ==Googol and comparable large numbers== | |||
| A googol is greater than the number of atoms in the ], which has been variously estimated from 10<sup>79</sup> up to 10<sup>81</sup> <ref> of the number of atoms in the Universe; 10<sup>78</sup> up to 10<sup>81</sup></ref><ref> of the number of atoms in the Universe; 4 × 10<sup>79</sup></ref>. Less than a googol ]s have elapsed since the ] (the current figure stands at around 8×10<sup>60</sup> Planck times). From the previous two figures, it can be seen that a list of where every particle is at every possible discernible unit of time since the ] would contain over a googol entries, but still far less than a googolplex: around 8 × 10<sup>140</sup>. | |||
| A ''little googol'' is 2<sup>100</sup> (about 1.268{{e|30}}), or 1,267,650,600,228,229,401,496,703,205,376, while a ''little googolplex'' is <math>2^{2^{100}}</math> or about <math>10^{3.8 \times 10^{29}}</math>. | |||
| ], 6.02214179{{e|23}}, is exactly the number of ] atoms in 12 grams (0.012 kg) of unbound <sup>12</sup>C in its ground state. It is perhaps the most widely known large number from ] and ]. Avogadro's number is less than the fourth root of a googol. | |||
| ]s are presumed to evaporate because they faintly give off ]; if so, a ] would take ''about'' a googol years to evaporate.<ref>, p.4</ref> | |||
| Seventy ], or 70!, is 1.19785717 × 10<sup>100</sup>. This means that there are over a googol ways to arrange seventy items (or people) in a sequence (such as a line to a ]). | |||
| The ], 10<sup>120</sup>, a rough lower bound on the number of possible chess games, is more than a googol. | |||
| A googol is considerably less than the number described in the ancient ]' story of ], namely <math>\left((10^8)^{(10^8)}\right)^{(10^8)}=10^{8\cdot 10^{64}}.</math> But it should be noted that the system invented by ] is reminiscent of a ] with base 10<sup>8</sup>, so that ]' number could be written <math>\left_{10^8}=\left_{10^8}</math>, that is, one googol in base 10<sup>8</sup> | |||
| ==In popular culture== | ==In popular culture== | ||
Revision as of 22:44, 31 July 2008
Template:Two other uses A googol is the large number 10, that is, the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros (in decimal representation). The term was coined in 1938 by Milton Sirotta (1929–1980), nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner. Milton was nine years old at the time. Kasner popularized the concept in his book Mathematics and the Imagination (1940).
Googol is of the same order of magnitude as the factorial of 70 (70! being approximately 1.198 googol, or 10 to the power 100.0784), and its only prime factors are 2 and 5 (100 of each). In binary it would take up 333 bits. A googol has no particular significance in mathematics, but is useful when comparing with other incredibly large quantities such as the number of subatomic particles in the visible universe or the number of possible chess games. Edward Kasner created it to illustrate the difference between an unimaginably large number and infinity, and in this role it is sometimes used in teaching mathematics.
A googol can be written in conventional notation as follows:
- 1 googol
- = 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
Its official English number name is ten duotrigintillion on the short scale, ten thousand sexdecillion on the long scale, or ten sexdecilliard on the Peletier long scale.
Googolplex
1
21
In popular culture
Googol was the answer to the million-pound question: "A number one followed by 100 zeros is known by what name?" on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? when Major Charles Ingram allegedly attempted to defraud the quiz show on 10 September 2001. The other options were a megatron, a gigabit or a nanomole.
Googol is one of the 336 vocabulary words in the board game Balderdash, and their definition on the back of the card is "The number one followed by 100 zeros."
In the January 23, 1963 Peanuts strip, Lucy asks Schroeder what the chances are of them getting married, and Schroeder responds "Oh, I'd say about 'googol' to one."
In an episode of the animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward, the "Gaminator" video games system is said to have a "3-googolhertz processor."
"A googol is precisely as far from infinity as is the number one." — Carl Sagan, Cosmos
The company name Google is a misspelling of the word "Googol" made by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as described in the book The Google Story by David A. Vise.
Was a question in the 1995 film, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (TV), when the two colleges were answering against each other. "What is a googol?" was the question. Norwood Gills answered with "One, followed by a hundred zeros".
See also
References
- Kasner, Edward and James Newman, Mathematics and the Imagination, 1940, Simon and Schuster, New York. ISBN 0-486-41703-4
- Millionaire's route to the top prize
External links
- History from the Google website
- Weisstein, Eric W. "Googol". MathWorld.
- googol at PlanetMath.
- "Tridecabillion" by Paul Niquette