googol
DEFINITIONA
googol is the large
number 10^100, that is, the digit 1 followed by one hundred
zeros (in
decimal representation). The term was coined in 1920 by nine-year-old Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner. Kasner popularized the concept in his book Mathematics and the Imagination.A 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.The googol is of 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. 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. Indeed, it is not even a round figure. Its formal name is ten duotrigintillion.The Internet search engine Google was named after this number. Larry Page, one of the founders, was fascinated with mathematics and "
Googol," even during high school. They ended up with "Google" due to a spelling mistake.12The word "google" or "googol," regardless of spelling, suggests the
wide-eyed look of a baby, and the comic strip character Barney Google who began appearing in the 1910s.A googol can be written in conventional
notation as follows:1 googol =
10100 = 10,00 0,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,00 0,000,000,000, 000,00 0,000,00 0,000,00 0,000,000,00 0,000,000, 000,00 0,000,000,0 00,000,0 00,000,0 00,000,000 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.HISTORYWhen it was named in 1920, the googol was undeniably large. 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. However, computations of a googol steps are still completely out of reach
googol
by whipernickle on Apr 20, 2005 07:23:12
Example:
1,
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, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 = googol, a number with
one-hundred zeros after it
googol
by Xx Shinwa xX on Oct 24, 2004 00:25:02
The
number 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
Example:
This is a googol:
10,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
Googol
by Fat boy large on Nov 04, 2003 11:52:22
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, (a number with a 1 and 100
zeros)
Example:
dude your mom is
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, (
googol) times hotter than
Pamela Anderson