B Googol and number naming scheme (Was: Just for fun)

[zuz]

How come a 1 followed by 99 zeros isn't called a google and a 1 followed by 100 zeros 10 google?

 

[Borg]

You have to have more zeros than that to get to the Googleplex level.

 

[zuz]

I know what a googleplex is. What I'm saying is that a 1 followed by 100 zeros should be 10 google, as in 10,000 is ten thousand, 10,000,000 is ten million etc.

 

[Borg]

Why do you think that 1 followed by 99 zeros should be called a google in the first place?

 

[DrClaude]

You'll have to ask Edward Kasner. The number google googol is not used in any official manner, so it doesn't matter.

 

[kent davidge]

You are all referring to it as Google but it's in fact Googol.

 

[DrClaude]

Why do you think that 1 followed by 99 zeros should be called a google in the first place?

Because most big numbers that have distinct names follow the pattern $10^{3n}$, with n an integer.

 

[zuz]

Correct. On the integer, and the spelling. Sorry.

 

[Borg]

Because most big numbers that have distinct names follow the pattern $10^{3n}$, with n an integer.

Missed that.

 

[Mark44]

Because most big numbers that have distinct names follow the pattern $10^{3n}$, with n an integer.

In the recent past there has been some disagreement about these "big numbers," with billion meaning "one thousand million" (or $10^9$) in American usage, but "one million million" (or $10^{12}$) in British usage. These are called, respectively, short scale and long scale. The same discrepancies were present for trillion, quadrillion, and so on. Since 1974, the long scale versions are used less frequently in the UK, but "billion" still means $10^{12}$ in most other European countries and elsewhere.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales#Current_usage

 

[BWV]

Because most big numbers that have distinct names follow the pattern $10^{3n}$, with n an integer.

However Graham’s number, a contender for the largest number used in a serious mathematical problem, is a power of 3 and it’s last 5 digits are 95387