A googolplex is the number , that is, 1 followed by a googol zeroes. The term googol was coined by the nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner. Googolplex was coined by Kasner to define an especially large number by extension from his nephew's idea. [1]

A googol is greater than the number of particles in the known universe, which has been variously estimated from 10⁷² up to 10⁸⁷. Since this is less than the number of zeroes in a googolplex, it would not be possible to write down or store a googolplex in decimal notation, even if all the matter in the known universe were converted into paper and ink or disk drives.

Thinking of this another way, consider printing the digits of a googolplex in unreadable, 1-point font. Tex 1pt font is .3514598mm per digit, which means it would take about 3.5 * 10⁹⁶ meters to write in one point font. The known universe is estimated at 7.4 * 10²⁶ meters in diameter, which means the distance to write the digits would be about 4.7 * 10⁶⁹ times the diameter of the known universe.

Even then, the magnitude of the googolplex is not as large as some of the specially defined extraordinarily large numbers. For example, it is between

and

and much smaller than

(see Knuth's up-arrow notation).

See also

• Standardized system of writing very large numbers

External links

• Known prime factors of googolplex + n (0 <= n <= 999): http://www.alpertron.com.ar/GOOGOL.HTM
• Another Googolplex page: http://www.procrastinators.org/googolplex.html