# Googol

## Googol

Name given to the number $$10^{100}$$.

The American mathematician Edward Kasner created this number to illustrate the difference between a large number and infinity.
A googol is huge and much greater than the number of particles in the known universe (about $$10^{80}$$).

### Historical Note

The word was used for the first time in English by the American mathematician Edward Kasner in his book Mathematics and the Imagination which appeared in 1938 (Kasner, E. and Newman, J. R. , 1989). According to Webster’s Dictionary, the name was coined in 1938 by Kasner’s nephew, 9-year-old Milton Sirotta, who suggested calling this very large number a “googol”.
It is also said that when the time came to find a name for their new company, Larry Page and Sergey Brin did some research with other students at Stanford University, including Sean Anderson, in order to find an available domain name. After a few attempts, Sean suggested google by playing on the letters of the word googol. Larry Page thought the name was interesting and kept it. Later on, they dubbed the company headquarters the “GooglePlex” in reference to the origins of the company’s name.