googolplex

Definition

The number 10^(10¹⁰⁰) or 10^( text )googol, ten to the power of a googol.

Etymology

From googol + -plex, coined by American mathematician Milton Sirotta in 1920 who was then the young nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner. First published and defined in the book Mathematics and the Imagination (1940).

Example Sentences

• "The name "googol" was invented by a child (Dr. Kasner's nine-year-old nephew) who was asked to think up a name for a very big number, namely, 1 with a hundred zeros after it. He was very certain that this number was not infinite, and therefore equally certain that it had to have a name. 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. This is a description of what would happen if one actually tried to write a googolplex, but different people get tired at different times and it would never do to have [Primo] Carnera a better mathematician than Dr. [Albert] Einstein, simply because he had more endurance. The googolplex then, is a specific finite number, with so many zeros after the 1 that the number of zeros is a googol. A googolplex is much bigger than a googol, much bigger than a googol times a googol. A googol times a googol would be 1 with 200 zeros, whereas a googolplex is one with a googol of zeros. You will get some idea of the size of this very large but finite number from the fact that there would not be enough room to write it, if you went to the farthest star, touring all the nebulae and putting down zeros every inch of the way."
• "Consider that we can start with one googolplex and count: two googolplexes, three googolplexes and so on up to a googolplex googolplexes and beyond—and still not have reached infinity."
• "If the universe were packed solid with neutrons, say, so there was no empty space anywhere, there would still only be about 10¹²⁸ particles in it, quite a bit more than a googol but trivially small compared to a googolplex."

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