The Highest Number we Have A Name For (1 Viewer)

[Ike]

Sounds stupid, but what is the highest number we have a name for? Hom do you write it?

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Isn't it called a google?

- Steve

 

[Ike]

I've heard of a google. I figured there was something higher I'd not heard of.

 

[Henry Gale]

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and -

 

[Sean Conklin]

It's either a googol or googolplex.

googol / googolplex googol: 10 100 , or 1 followed by 100 zeros.

 

[Adil M]

googleplex plus one

 

[rob kilbride]

If you don't add whatever million or billion to it the largest named number is googolplex (notice the correct spelling). Googol is 10 to the power of 100. Googolplex is 10 to the power of googol. I think I heard Carl Sagan or someone discussing it and I believe they said its kind of a useless number because it is greater than the number of atoms that are estimated to exist the entire universe. A good googolplex reference in the movies: In BTTF3, Doc Brown thinks he's lost Mary Steenburgen's character forever and lament's "She's one in a googolplex."

 

[NickSo]

Its googleplex, which is One, plus a google of Zeroes

 

[Sean Conklin]

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,
000,000,000,000,000 = Googolplex

 

[Bill Catherall]

Sean - That's a googol, not a googolplex. If you began to right out a googolplex you would never finish it.

Rob has it right.

 

[Sean Conklin]

Okay a Googol it is. Still a lot of zero's.

 

[Steve Enemark]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but infinity is bigger than a googleplex.

 

[Joe D]

Infinity is a concept, not a number.

 

[Greg_Y]

The general consensus is that the googolplex is the largest named number. However, I found this using a Google search (Get it!?)
From Link Removed --

Once people realized they could get a number named after them by defining it, some people decided to invent even larger numbers than googol and googolplex. Two of these are the Moser, and Graham's number. They're hard to explain. (Apparently, Graham's number is the larger of the two.) If you want to learn about them, go here:
http://public.logica.com/~stepneys/cyc/g/graham.htm
Or here:
http://public.logica.com/~stepneys/cyc/b/big.htm#moser
For more on infinity and really big numbers, try:
Link Removed

 

[Jon_Are]

I recall reading in the Guiness Book of World Records several years ago that the largest named number is 'centillion', which is a one followed by 600 zeros.

'course, you could always cite a centillion and one...

...or, a centillion and two...

...or....well...nevermind.

Jon

 

[SteveA]

Here's a better question: What is the largest number that quantifies something that actually exists and is measurable? It seems to me that a google is such a large number that it's possible there's no use for it (like Carl Sagan said).

 

[BrianW]

My local multi-screen theater is called The Googolplex. I guess that explains the tiny screens.

 

[Sean Conklin]

Steve,

I would be willing to bet that the entire blizzard that hit the Buffalo, NY area last week contained at least a Googol of individual snowflakes.

 

[Kevin P]

I recall reading in the Guiness Book of World Records several years ago that the largest named number is 'centillion', which is a one followed by 600 zeros.

Googol is a cooler name though.
But I can top centillion. If a googolplex is 10 to a googol power, how about a centillionplex? Ouch, my head hurts just thinking about it...
KJP

 

[DaveF]

what is the highest number we have a name for

I like to call a (Googolplex)^2 "Joe".
Does that count?