quadrillion is 1,000 trillion). But in the British system, the first denomination above
1,000 milliards (the British billion) is 1,000,000 times the preceding one (for example,
one trillion is 1,000,000 billion; one quadrillion is 1,000,000 trillion). The American
system is based on an early French system, which the French ironically no longer fol-
low. Their larger number names now correspond to the British system, as do those of
many other countries in Europe.
American and British Naming Systems for Large Numbers
American Name British Name Number (in powers of ten)
billion milliard 109
trillion billion 1012
quadrillion — 1015
quintillion trillion 1018
sextillion — 1021
septillion quadrillion 1024
octillion — 1027
nonillion quintillion 1030
decillion — 1033
undecillion sextillion 1036
duodecillion — 1039
tredecillion septillion 1042 73MATH BASICS
What is a googol?
T
he “googol” is the invention of Milton Sirotta, the eight-year-old nephew of
mathematician Edward Kasner, who once asked the young boy to name the
number 1 followed by 100 zeros (10 to the 100th power or 10^100 ). A googol is an
incredibly large number, so there is little it can represent. Although you might
guess it would represent some collection of astronomical entities, such as the
number of elementary particles in the universe, it does not: Scientists estimate
only about 10 to the 80th power (10^80 ) such particles exist.Googol was soon followed by googolplex,a name invented by another math-
ematician, and said to equal 10 to the power of googol (or 1 followed by 10 to the
power of 100 zeros). No one has ever seen such a large number printed out. And
although it is true that computer processing power doubles about every one to
two years, it is still too early to print the number represented by a googolplex.
Thus, many ask why begin at all, since attempts to do so will soon be overtaken
by faster processors? In fact, it is estimated that it will take another 500 years
before such an endeavor is achieved.