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 googleplex for another 524 years - since all earlier attempts
to print a googleplex out would be overtaken by the faster processor.
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