Googol

Pronunciation: /ˈgug.gɒl/ Explain

A googol is the number 10¹⁰⁰, which is the same as a one followed by one hundred zeros. Googol is used to indicate a very large number. It is often used to show a number that is quite large but not infinite. The word "googol" was invented by nine-year-old Milton Sirott, nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner in 1938.

A googolplex is 10 raised to a googol power. If a googolplex were written out as ones and zeros in a book, it would take a book larger than the observable universe.

References

1. McAdams, David E.. All Math Words Dictionary, googol. 2nd Classroom edition 20150108-4799968. pg 86. Life is a Story Problem LLC. January 8, 2015. Buy the book

More Information

• Pilhofer, Frank. The Googolplex Page. 12/2/2009. http://www.fpx.de/fp/Fun/Googolplex/.

Cite this article as:

McAdams, David E. Googol. 12/21/2018. All Math Words Encyclopedia. Life is a Story Problem LLC. https://www.allmathwords.org/en/g/googol.html.

Image Credits

• All images and manipulatives are by David McAdams unless otherwise stated. All images by David McAdams are Copyright © Life is a Story Problem LLC and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Revision History

12/21/2018: Reviewed and corrected IPA pronunication. (McAdams, David E.)
7/10/2018: Removed broken links, updated license, implemented new markup, implemented new Geogebra protocol. (McAdams, David E.)
5/5/2011: Initial version. (McAdams, David E.)
2/14/2011: Minor formatting changes. (McAdams, David E.)
2/8/2010: Added "References". (McAdams, David E.)
12/2/2009: Authored. (McAdams, David E.)