MadSci Network: Other
Query:

Re: what are the next numbers in a power of ten after a googol

Date: Sun Sep 24 23:42:29 2000
Posted By: Kermit Rose, Staff, Academic Computing Network Services, Florida State University
Area of science: Other
ID: 968603269.Ot
Message:

Actually we already had a latin name for a googol.  The latin name for 63
followed by the illion suffix is the formal name for 10 to the 99th power.

Then 10 times that number would be a googol.  The googolplex is 1 followed
by a googol zeroes which is a number too large to assign a meaning to.

We generally do not bother with formal names for really large numbers.  It
is sufficient to use the exponential notation.  We write 1 followed by a
hundred zeroes as 10^100.  We could write 1 followed by a googol zeroes as
10^(10^100).



The formal nomenclature can be seen on the web page

 http://mathworld.wolfram.com/LargeNumber.html
                     
MathWorld    Number Theory    Numbers



                        Large Number



                        Large decimal numbers beginning with 10 to the 9th
are named according to two mutually conflicting nomenclatures: the American
system (in which the prefix, mil, bil, tri, etc stands for 3 + 3 times the
corresponding number of zeros ) and the British system (in which the
prefix stands for 6 times the number of zeros ).
        However, it should be noted that in more recent years, the
"American" system is now widely used in England as well as in the United
States.
 The following table gives the names assigned to
                        various powers of 10 (Woolf 1982). 

American         British            power of 10
                              means  1 followed by how many zeroes


million          million                 6


billion          milliard                9


trillion         billion                12


quadrillion                             15


quintillion      trillion               18

sextillion                              21


septillion       quadrillion            24


octillion                               27


nonillion        quintillion            30


decillion                               33


undecillion      sextillion             36


duodecillion                            39                   
                                                                          
tredecillion     septillion             42


quattuordecillion                       45


quindecillion     octillion             48


sexdecillion                            51


septendecillion    nonillion            54


octodecillion                           57


novemdecillion     decillion            60     

vigintillion                             63


                   undecillion           66


                   duodecillion          72


                   tredecillion          78


                   quattuordecillion     84


                   quindecillion         90


                   sexdecillion          96 

                  septendecillion      102


                   octodecillion        108


                   novemdecillion       114


                   vigintillion         120


centillion                               303



                    centillion           600    

 References

                        Conway, J. H. and Guy, R. K. The Book of Numbers.
New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 59-62, 1996.

                        Crandall, R. E. "The Challenge of Large Numbers."
Sci. Amer. 276, 74-79, Feb. 1997.

                        Davis, P. J. The Lore of Large Numbers. New York:
Random House, 1961.

                        Knuth, D. E. "Mathematics and Computer Science:
Coping with Finiteness. Advances in Our
                        Ability to Compute Are Bringing Us Substantially
Closer to Ultimate Limitations." Science 194,
                        1235-1242, 1976.

                        Munafo, R. "Large Numbers."                        
                                                    http://www.mrob.com/largenum.html.

                        Spencer, J. "Large Numbers and Unprovable
Theorems." Amer. Math. Monthly 90, 669-675, 1983.

                        Woolf, H. B. (Ed. in Chief). Webster's New
Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam,
                        p. 782, 1980.


                                     ) 1996-2000 Eric W. Weisstein and
Wolfram Research, Inc.
                                    Sponsored by Wolfram Research, Inc.,
makers of Mathematica                                                      
    
                                                     


Current Queue | Current Queue for Other | Other archives

Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Other.



MadSci Home | Information | Search | Random Knowledge Generator | MadSci Archives | Mad Library | MAD Labs | MAD FAQs | Ask a ? | Join Us! | Help Support MadSci


MadSci Network, webadmin@www.madsci.org
© 1995-2000. All rights reserved.