How Big Is It?::::The Really Really Really Big Numbers

Click to enlarge these 10,000 dots. If you want
to see what a million looks like, print 100 copies
of this image.


I love Robert Munafo's web site! He helps you understand the numbers, and although he is a wonky science guy, he can explain what a million is in a way a knucklehead like me might understand:

"You can just barely put 1,000,000 dots on a large piece of paper and stand at a distance such that you can perceive each individual dot as a distinct dot."

So, there is a thousand, million, billion, and trillion. The big numbers past a trillion, in rising powers of ten, are:

quadrillion
quintillion
sextillion
septillion
octillion
nonillion
decillion
undecillion
duodecillion
tredecillion
quattuordecillio
quindecillion (that's 10 to the 48th, or a one followed by 48 zeros), (or,
1,000, 000, 000, 000,000, 000,000, 000,000, 000,000, 000,000, 000,000, 000).

The highest number Munafo's table shows is a milli-millillion. That's 10 to the 3000003rd. For something closer to home, a centillion is 10 to the 600th.

The googolplex is often considered the largest named number in the world. Googol is ten to the one hundredth. Googolplex is one followed by a googol of zeroes.