Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

It does not seem we need to even use the number googol, petition to eliminate it.now (Lol). It is impossible to practically use the number since there aren't even close to a googol atoms in the universe, it does not make since to even have the number. By the way, I will pay $100 to any (1) person who can write every integer from 1 to a googol :]

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

If we get rid of the term googol we can't have alliterations like a googol gaggles of geese. Plus it's always good to have a number that's not infinity but qualifies as a generic "really really big number".

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

It has some uses. Maybe not regular uses (like how many tacos I want for lunch), but uses non-the-less.

Check this out -
googol

Now a googolplex is even bigger: 1 followed by a googol of zeros.

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

Someone invented it for a reason. If they didn't needed, the wouldn't have invented it.

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

for the same reason we have words for million, billion, trillion, gazillion

its easier to say than One E to the one hundreth

now a googolplex on the other hand, thats just getting absurd!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

I take you up on your challenge Michael:
"every integer from 1 to a googol"

I wrote it, just like you said. PM me so I can give you my address so you can send me the $100. Thanks! :) Lol.

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

Write != write a program/script/what not to write it for you.

Nice try though

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

He means that he wrote the string "Every number from 1 to googol", and not a list of all those numbers.

Besides, all the numbers between one and a googol are more than the estimated number of particles in the universe.

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

Ah, that's even better... wow, it's all together too obvious that I've been staring at (and writing) code all day.

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, oh look a bird, 7, 8, 9, 10... Sorry... I have ADHD. ^_^

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

I wouldnt know what to say to them all, but Ill try

Dear Integer,

How have you been? How is Mrs Integer?
I am in the process of writing to every integer from 1 to a googol and I was wondering if you could help me out. Please make ten copies of this letter and mail it to the next ten integers higher than you....

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

You forgot the part about:

"...and please forward this within 6.424563 hours of receiving this letter or you will forever be cursed with a poor love life, Ebola, the black plague, wrinkles, will be forever chased down by El Niño and have to live with smelly feet for life."

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

Nice, Ken and Tim. That was great. :D ROTFLMFO (rolling on the floor laughing my face off...)

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

there are better ways to threaten integers:

Not replying to this letter would be an irrational act - you dont want the other integers talking negatively about you

you could end up getting drawn

and quartered!

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

I don't remember who "invented" googol (but a quick google search can answer that!) but I know that he let his nephew name the number.

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

And just when i thought i would have my first day of not learnign something new :D LOL well all i ahve to say is thats a big number.

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

I think, eventually, the 1 to 1000 thread will reach a googol. Alas, that's not one person.

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

Then we simply divide the 100 dollars between everyone whose ever posted in it.

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

i dare you to write a script and try to fill your hard drives with lots of 0's in a text file ;)

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

haha so since I am bored... presenting "1 with 100 zeros..."

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0 00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

Haha...you messed up; you only have 97 zeros there! (I'm sure you just knew that someone would take the time to count)

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

:yikes:
bah!!!
i edited it, sure that i was three over..... *scowl*

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

heres a site where some wrote a script to count from 1 to a googol. Needless to say they've barely scratched the surface. :p http://www.procrastinators.org/googolplex.html

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

Actually, you're right; it was 100 zeros in the first place. I couldn't resist the temptation to do that.

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

The name “googol” was devised just after WWI by Milton Sirotta, the nine-year-old nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner. It was created to illustrate the difference between a large number and infinity. Other than that, it has no particular use or significance. There are some interesting properties to this number :

It is approximately equal to factorial seventy – 70!

It has only two prime factors, 2 and 5.

In binary, it takes up 333 bits.

A regular polygon that has a googol of sides, and is 10E27 times the size of the known universe, would still appear to be a circle even if we looked on the scale of a Planck length – 1.616E-35 meters.

The number googol is larger than the number of particles in the known universe, estimated at between 10E72 to 10E87.

The “Google” internet search engine was named after the googol, but they made a spelling error, which turned out OK because google.com was available and googol.com was not. The Google headquarters is known as the “Googleplex”, after the number googolplex, which is 10Egoogol, or one followed by a googol of zeroes.

As far as printing out a googolplex, here is an interesting statement by Frank Pilhofer that it can be mathematically proven that it is useless to try to do it:

“However, this program is completely useless, and it is possible to mathematically prove its uselessness. The proof first introduces two corollaries.

Corollary 1
The computing power of microchips doubles every second year.
This statement is also known as "Moore's Law", named after the Intel Co-Founder. It has been empirically shown to be correct for the last 30 years. Actually, the original statement reads "every 18 months," I'm being a little more conservative than that. If you think that the value of two years is incorrect, invent another one. It doesn't make a lot of difference.
Corollary 2
At today's speed, the program will run for 3.125*10^85 years.
The fastest available desktop computers of today will run the program at a speed that allows the printing of about 10 to the power of 7 digits per second. The average year has roughly 3.2*10^7 seconds, so this machine will print about 3.2*10^14 digits per year. We conclude that this machine will need 3.125*10^85 years to finish printing Googolplex.
We now combine these two corollaries in the following mental experiment. Imagine that you do not start the program now, but that you wait two years before starting it. Corollary 1 states that the processor power will have doubled by then, therefore halfing the running time calculated by corollary 2 to 1.5625*10^85 years.
The delayed program that's being started in two years therefore overtakes the program started today, and finishes its computation 1.5625*10^85 minus 2 years ahead of the undelayed program.
Of course, this makes it useless to run the program today, because it would only reproduce the already existing output of the program that's being started in the future. We have therefore shown that the program is useless today.
We complete the proof by iteratively using the above mental experiment on itself. It is easily understandable that it doesn't make any sense running the program as long as the computation time exceeds 4 years. A simple calculation shows that this will be not be the case for the next 282 "life cycles", that is, 564 years.
Until then, we can always overtake computation by running the same program two years later and therefore brand an undelayed program execution as useless.
We can summarize our thoughts in the following, now proven, sentence:
The program is useless today, and will be useless for the next 564 years. qed.
Lucas Watson (lwatkins@scri.fsu.edu) took a different approach, and pointed out that my program will be useless even in a million years, simply because there isn't enough matter to print a Googolplex on (and this fact is unlikely to change). According to him, this idea originated on Carl Sagan's Cosmos TV show.
But who said we have to print Googolplex in decimal? If we switch to base Googolplex, you can print it simply as 10. (suggested by Paul Dourish dourish@europarc.xerox.com). ”

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

:eek: no fair!!! *pout*

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

ok thats impossible...well not really impossible but if i started now...i'd have to keep writing until i was like 60 lol i dont kno. i remember my freshman year in math my teacher told us we have the option of writing 1-1,000,000 or just take the end of the semester final. the whole class started writing 1-million and the whole block and everyone just gave up because itd take us like 3 straight months to do and the final was like that week. therefore...i raise the bet lol ill give someone like 1,000,000 dollars if they write 1 to a googol lol

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

Hey, just to help you out, it was Edward Kasner. Carl Sagan then used the term when he son asked him how many stars were in the universe.

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

To help you with your calculations lol it takes about 200 years, counting 24 hours a day to count to a trillion

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

In the closing ceremonies, I recal something about people not being able to spell when they used the google search engine. How ironic.






I Shall divide you by zero...

Re: Why do we have the number "googol" (not google)? (1 with 100 zeros...)
 

When I read "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." I doubted that was true. So I broke out calc.exe and went to work.

1E1000 / 8 = 1.25E999 bytes
1.25E999 / 1024= 1.220703125E996 megabytes
1.220703125E996 / 1024 = 1.1920928955078125E993 gigabytes
1.1920928955078125E993 / 1024 = 1.16415321826934814453125E990 terabytes
1.16415321826934814453125E990 / 1024 = 1.136868377216160297393798828125E987 petabytes
1.136868377216160297393798828125E987 / 1024 = 1.1102230246251565404236316680908E984 exabytes
1.1102230246251565404236316680908E984 / 1024 = 1.0842021724855044340074528008699E981 zettabytes
1.0842021724855044340074528008699E981 / 1024 = 1.0587911840678754238354031258496E978 yottabytes

Assuming 1 out of every 6 people in this world has a hard drive, with an average of 40GiB space... that means altogether there is 2,684,354,560,000,000,000 bits of space. That is 298.023223876953125 exabytes.

So I've come to the conclusion that Wikipedia was right, and I just wasted about 20 minutes of my life. Why must I question the all-knowing Wikipedia?