A googol is huge and much greater than the number of particles in the known universe (about \(10^{80}\)).
Properties
- A googol is a number with 101 digits.
- In scientific notation, a googol is written as: 1 × 10100.
- The unique factorization of a googol is: 2100 × 5100.
- A googol is a perfect square: (1050)2.
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.