googol and googolplex
A googol is 10 to the 100th power (which is 1 followed by 100 zeros). The term was invented by Milton Sirotta, the 9-year nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner, who had asked his nephew what he thought such a large number should be called. Such a number, Milton apparently replied after a short thought, could only be called something as silly as...a googol! A googol is larger than the number of elementary particles in the universe, which amount to only 10 to the 80th power.
Later, another mathematician devised the term googolplex for 10 to the power of googol - that is, 1 followed by 10 to the power of 100 zeros. Frank Pilhofer has determined that, given Moore's Law (which is that computer processor power doubles about every 1 to 2 years), it would make no sense to try to print out a googolplex for another 524 years - since all earlier attempts to print a googolplex out would be overtaken by the faster processor.
-- Taken from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213798,00.html
Google, which derives from the word "googol"-the numeral one followed by a hundred zeros-had set up a live feed of the thirteen million queries that it gets each day.
-- Taken from http://www.google.com/press/newyorker.html
BWAHAHAHAH! I TOLD you it was a math term!
*smug*
A googol is 10 to the 100th power (which is 1 followed by 100 zeros). The term was invented by Milton Sirotta, the 9-year nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner, who had asked his nephew what he thought such a large number should be called. Such a number, Milton apparently replied after a short thought, could only be called something as silly as...a googol! A googol is larger than the number of elementary particles in the universe, which amount to only 10 to the 80th power.
Later, another mathematician devised the term googolplex for 10 to the power of googol - that is, 1 followed by 10 to the power of 100 zeros. Frank Pilhofer has determined that, given Moore's Law (which is that computer processor power doubles about every 1 to 2 years), it would make no sense to try to print out a googolplex for another 524 years - since all earlier attempts to print a googolplex out would be overtaken by the faster processor.
-- Taken from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213798,00.html
Google, which derives from the word "googol"-the numeral one followed by a hundred zeros-had set up a live feed of the thirteen million queries that it gets each day.
-- Taken from http://www.google.com/press/newyorker.html
BWAHAHAHAH! I TOLD you it was a math term!
*smug*