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One motivation for such a pursuit is that attributed to the inventor of the word googol, who was certain that any finite number "had to have a name". Another possible motivation is competition between students in computer programming courses, where a common exercise is that of writing a program to output numbers in the form of English words.
A standardized way of writing very large numbers allows them to be easily sorted in increasing order, and one can get a good idea of how much larger a number is than another one. To compare numbers in scientific notation, say 5×10 4 and 2×10 5, compare the exponents first, in this case 5 > 4, so 2×10 5 > 5×10 4.
1/52! chance of a specific shuffle Mathematics: The chances of shuffling a standard 52-card deck in any specific order is around 1.24 × 10 −68 (or exactly 1 ⁄ 52!) [4] Computing: The number 1.4 × 10 −45 is approximately equal to the smallest positive non-zero value that can be represented by a single-precision IEEE floating-point value.
The interim powers of one thousand between vigintillion and centillion do not have standardized names, nor do any higher powers, but there are many ad hoc extensions in use. The highest number listed in Robert Munafo's table of such unofficial names [ 2 ] is milli-millillion, which was coined as a name for 10 to the 3,000,003rd power.
A list of articles about numbers (not about numerals). Topics include powers of ten, notable integers, prime and cardinal numbers, and the myriad system.
For powers of ten less than 9 (one, ten, hundred, thousand and million) the short and long scales are identical, but for larger powers of ten, the two systems differ in confusing ways. For identical names, the long scale grows by multiples of one million (10 6), whereas the short scale grows by multiples of one thousand (10 3).
If you've been having trouble with any of the connections or words in Monday's puzzle, you're not alone and these hints should definitely help you out. Plus, I'll reveal the answers further down ...
Sagan gave an example that if the entire volume of the observable universe is filled with fine dust particles roughly 1.5 micrometers in size (0.0015 millimeters), then the number of different combinations in which the particles could be arranged and numbered would be about one googolplex.