Science Articles & Cool Facts
When you hear the word Google the first image that comes to mind has to be the famous internet search engine but does the word actually mean anything ? Well the answer is a firm yes because it comes from the term “Googol” which represents a number (written as a 1 followed by 100 zeros) so large that it’s actually larger than the total number of atoms in the known universe.
As you might imagine the number is rarely used except maybe in theoretical and computational calculations, however the big question is whether a number bigger than a Googol exists ? Well funnily enough there is and it’s called a googolplex which would be a number 1 followed by, wait for it not one thousand zeros, not even one million zeros but a googol zeroes.
Getting confused ? Well you should be because this number is so large that it’s almost impossible to imagine and also impossible to write because doing so would require more space than the known universe provides. Absolutely mind boggling don’t you think!
Lastly for those of you that are interested in where this term actually came from, well it was popularized in the 1940′s by the american mathematician Edward Kasner who created it as a useful number when comparing unimaginably large numbers with infinity. Oh and the actual term “googol” was coined by his then 9 year old nephew Milton Sirotta, not bad for a 9 year old!
very nice but r these the only facts on the website
this is mind blowing i can`t get me head around it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where did you get the idea that there is only one Googol atoms in the universe?! In a single gram of Hydrogen there is about 6.08 x 10^23 atoms. IN A SINGLE GRAM. In one litre of water there would be far more than a Googol of atoms. Then let’s not get into the fact that a single middle sized star (such as our sun) has around 2 x 10^30 kg of Hydrogen. And the largest star in the known universe, VY Canis Majoris, has over 25 solar masses (ie at least 25 times as much Hydrogen) and would reach out past saturn if it was put in place of our Sun. I think that there might be a bit more than a Googol of atoms in the known universe
so is the googolplex theoretically a number one followed by googol times itself?
WOW its mind Boggling.
Great information.
GOOD
good info
couldny you write it on a computer
Now i m going to calculate exact opposite of it.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
cooll….i never knew this….good info
a googol?
Is that how many soldiers went to iraq?
I reckon using copy+paste, a googolplex of any character you choose could be achievable fairly easy using notepad.
Is a Googolplex an odd or even number?
I think it was one Georg Cantor who sorted out this mathematical conundrum of larger and larger counts decades ago. Though of course it is not universally accepted that he did.
A Googolplex (10 to the power of googol) is really just an unimaginally large number.
All it really is saying that there is a number that is so big that it would take forever to count up to it. As a concept though it has philosophical complications.
I prefer Douglas Adams – The Universe is BIG. Very, Very BIG.
for “Someone that went to High School”:
(6*10^23) atoms in a gram * (25*2*10^30*10^3) the mass of VY Canis Majoris in grams = 3*10^57 atoms in VY Canis Majoris.
You will need 3.3 * 10^42 stars as VY Canis Majoris to have a Googol atoms.
wow that a lot og zeros good info
wow.gud info…..
its amazing
How about a number written as 1 followed by a googolplex 0′s.
I think that the day a scientist attempts to input that number into a computer, the end of the world will occur.
if you people find this amazing, i find out what a graham’s number is…….. you will be amazed
I KNOW THAT GOOGOL MEANS 100 ZEROES AFTER 1 BUT IT PROVIDES MORE ABOUT THIS SUB
Very interesting… I reckon surely there must have been at least a googol no of ppl who have used google since it began.