Googol

N

nish

Active Member
Was going to save this for the monday morning but;


Firstly, for those who don't already know, 1 googol = 10^100 (the digit 1 followed by 100 zeros.)

Googol was coined in 1938 by the son of an American Mathematician and now is used to teach mathematics. Although it has no practical uses, it was created to illustrate the difference between and unimaginably large numer and infinity.

The interesting thing about this number is that a googol of anything would not fit in the known universe, not even a googol of atoms. However numbers this large are used regually in computing.

A googol is greater than the number of particles in the known universe, which have been estimated at between 10^72 up to 10^87.

A googolhedron is a three-dimensional shape bounded by 10^100 similar polygons. Because of this great many number of polygons, this shape would look very much like a sphere. Having this many sides or facets would make it smoother than any man made object. There can, however, never actually be a googolhedron because there are not a googol particles in the universe.

A googolplex is 1 followed by a googol of zeroes, or ten raised to the power of a googol: 10^googol = 10^10^100

Since a googol plus 1 is the number of digits in a googolplex, it would therefore not be possible to write down or store the digits of a googolplex in decimal notation, even if all the matter in the known universe were converted into paper and ink or disk drives.

Am I geeky for being fascinated by this? :oops:
 
Crikey :!:

Wasn't googol the answer to the question that "won" the coughing major his million or am I a c***
 
*cough*

really?

Didnt *cough* know that.

Will have to check out them videos on the net to see if it really was that obvious, dont think ive seen it yet.
 
Googol. Think it was.

Perhaps not the best plan hatched to win a million but I reckon he deserved it for trying.

Either that or I am a c***
 
lame.gif
 
Not geeky at all.

I love this stuff, and came across loads of bits like it whilst studying maths at University.

I find the principle of infinity fascinating in itself, and can bore people for hours with it. No, really!...
 
:lol:

In answer to your question, "Is it geeky?" Absolutely. Very interesting though. Then again, I always seem to talk about who was the hardest A Team character. That's just as geeky but on a less intellectual scale!!

Okay so you have described a google .... could there not be a google of human brain waves in the universe at any one time?
 
[quote="jeembo] Okay so you have described a google .... could there not be a google of human brain waves in the universe at any one time?[/quote]

8O Too much thought needed!!
 
Interesting....

Surely infinity does exist then!!! Say we used every particle in the universe to store a digit then the highest number we can get from this must be infinity, as there is no way to get a higher number from the resources of our universe :!:

How we could transform all the particles into digits, I don't know..... :lol:

And there would be no one left to count 8O

I'm just talking shite :D
 
jrd said:
Interesting....

Surely infinity does exist then!!! Say we used every particle in the universe to store a digit then the highest number we can get from this must be infinity, as there is no way to get a higher number from the resources of our universe :!:

How we could transform all the particles into digits, I don't know..... :lol:

And there would be no one left to count 8O

I'm just talking sh*te :D
Click to expand...

Inifinity isn't a number, it's a principle.
 
nish, dont know if your going to read this but i think we have shared connections - you know Nick Drape of the Liverpoolshire? i think ya do!:)
 
in fact just checked on yer myspace and you do and all! sent you a freinds request thing (whilst still acknowledging that face book is where its at!)
 
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