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A googolplex is the large number 10 googol, ... Milton Sirotta, coined the term googol, which is 10 100, and then proposed the further term googolplex to be "one, ...
Graham's number was used by Graham in conversations with popular science writer Martin Gardner as a simplified explanation of the upper bounds of the problem he was working on. In 1977, Gardner described the number in Scientific American, introducing it to the general public. At the time of its introduction, it was the largest specific positive ...
Kasner used it to illustrate the difference between an unimaginably large number and infinity, and in this role it is sometimes used in teaching mathematics. To put in perspective the size of a googol, the mass of an electron, just under 10 −30 kg, can be compared to the mass of the visible universe, estimated at between 10 50 and 10 60 kg. [ 5 ]
At the same time that he suggested "googol" he gave a name for a still larger number: "googolplex". A googolplex is much larger than a googol, but is still finite, as the inventor of the name was quick to point out. It was first suggested that a googolplex should be 1, followed by writing zeros until you got tired.
Mathematics: 2 82,589,932 × (2 82,589,933 − 1) is a 49,724,095-digit perfect number, the largest known as of 2020. [87] Mathematics – History: 10 8×10 16, largest named number in Archimedes' Sand Reckoner. Mathematics: 10 googol (), a googolplex. A number 1 followed by 1 googol zeros.
The googolplex was often cited as the largest named number in English. If a googol is ten to the one hundredth power, then a googolplex is one followed by a googol of zeros (that is, ten to the power of a googol). [3] There is the coinage, of very little use, of ten to the googolplex power, of the word googolplexplex.
The Ancient Greeks used a system based on the myriad, that is, ten thousand, and their largest named number was a myriad myriad, or one hundred million. In The Sand Reckoner , Archimedes (c. 287–212 BC) devised a system of naming large numbers reaching up to
Some took this game further by filling their postcards with mathematical expressions designed to evaluate to the largest possible number in the limited space allowed. As a result, the contestants caused the prize to become moot (as it would have been a minuscule fraction of a cent) and the magazine was unable to tell who won the prize.