We’ve Looked At Beautiful Numbers, Now How About Some Really BIG ones!

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

Taking a break from the funny stuff today.

A while ago I did a post about Beautiful Numbers. And yesterday I was having a look at the debt situation in various countries, which sparked off this post about numbers, BIG ones. 

I will post links to the US debt figures and a couple of others at the end of this post. They are kind of fascinating because they are real-time counters, continually updating.

However, to get on with the post, everybody knows 1 (one), 10 (ten), 100 (hundred), 1,000 (thousand), and 1,000,000 (million). We are all familiar with 1,000,000,000 (billion) although none of us have ever counted that far. In fact oil mogul John Paul Getty once said that if you could count your money you weren’t a billionaire. I can, and I’m not, so perhaps he was right!

And, thanks to the massive debt that the US and other countries are building up, we are also getting more and more familiar with 1,000,000,000,000 trillion.

After that, however, most people would be stuck. Here are the next big numbers.

1,000,000,000,000,000 quadrillion

1,000,000,000,000,000,000 quintillion

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 sextillion

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 septillion

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 octillion

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 nonillion

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 decillion

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 vigintillion

10¹⁰⁰ better known as a googol from which the search engine google derived its name.

10³⁰³ centillion

And finally for now, a googolplex which is 10^googol

That’s a lot of zeros!

You may have noticed in all this that the names for a lot of the larger numbers end in “illion”. This is also true for the names used to describe numbers that don’t actually exist and that are of no specific size.

For example, words like , ‘jillion’, ‘gadzillion’ and ‘squillion’ (there are many other variations). Their size is dependent upon the context, but can typically be considered a very very large number. And if you are talking about the super rich then all you have to do is stick ‘-illionaire’ on the end.

But the best term for describing a number is one that also doesn’t really exist. I mean it exists as a word, but it is not a precise mathematical term and it just describes a big number rather than a specific big number.

The term I’m talking about is ‘Umpteen’. From the name you would imagine that it should represent a number somewhere in the teens, but it can be used to describe virtually any number, real or imaginary. A useful term if you don’t have a specific number in mind.

Now for the clocks. Here are the links. Hope you find them interesting, maybe a little scary in some cases.

Probably the best of these is from the wonderfully named poodwaddle.com

http://www.poodwaddle.com/clocks/worldclock/

Some others to look at too if you are interested in this type of thing

US Debt clock   http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html

World Debt Clock   http://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html

And some real time world counters on a variety of things

http://www.worldometers.info/

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Beautiful Numbers

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

I’ve heard it said that there are three kinds of mathematicians -- those who can count and those who can't.  

That seems to be getting more and more true. It used to be by the time we left school we all had a basic knowledge of arithmetic. Enough to count our change and balance our check books. Sadly that is no longer the case.

For most of us that was as far as mathematics went. For others it led to algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus and even something they called advanced maths.

But what we all missed in school, no matter whether our knowledge was basic or advanced, was the fact that numbers can sometimes be beautiful, both in what they can do and the patterns they can make.

Here are a few examples below that I hope you find at least a little bit interesting.

But first a joke. It’s a oldie and involves my old friend Dubya, who for many years provided me with an endless source of amusement. Damn I miss him for that! Anyway, here’s the joke….

President Bush's morning security briefing is wrapping up.  

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is concluding his part and says, "Finally, three Brazilian soldiers were killed yesterday near Baghdad."

"OH MY GOD!" shrieks Bush, and he buries his head in his hands for a seemingly interminable 30 seconds.  


Stunned at the unexpected display of emotion, the President's staff sits speechless, not sure how to react.

Finally, Bush looks up and asks Rumsfeld,

"How many is a brazillion?"

Now for the beautiful numbers

  3 x 37 = 111    and     1 + 1 + 1 =   3

  6 x 37 = 222    and     2 + 2 + 2 =   6

  9 x 37 = 333    and     3 + 3 + 3 =   9

12 x 37 = 444    and     4 + 4 + 4 = 12

15 x 37 = 555    and     5 + 5 + 5 = 15

18 x 37 = 666    and     6 + 6 + 6 = 18

21 x 37 = 777    and     7 + 7 + 7 = 21

24 x 37 = 888    and     8 + 8 + 8 = 24

27 x 37 = 999    and     9 + 9 + 9 = 27

1 x 1 = 1

11 x 11 = 121

111 x 111 = 12321

1111 x 1111 = 1234321

11111 x 11111 = 123454321

111111 x 111111 = 12345654321

1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321

11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321

111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11

12 x 9 + 3 = 111

123 x 9 + 4 = 1111

1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111

12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111

123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111

1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111

12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111

123456789 x 9 +10 = 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88

98 x 9 + 6 = 888

987 x 9 + 5 = 8888

9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888

98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888

987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888

9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888

98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

1 x 8 + 1 = 9

12 x 8 + 2 = 98

123 x 8 + 3 = 987

1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876

12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765

123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654

1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543

12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432

123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

67 x 67 = 4489

667 x 667 = 444889

6667 x 6667 = 44448889

66667 x 66667 = 4444488889

666667 x 666667 = 444444888889

6666667 x 6666667 = 44444448888889

and so on

4 x 4 = 16

34 x 34 = 1156

334 x 334 = 111556

3334 x 3334 = 11115556

33334 x 33334 = 1111155556

A Truly Remarkable Number

Enter the number 999999 into your calculator, then divide it by seven. 

The result will be a mysterious number!

Throw a die (or randomly pick a number from 1 to 6) and multiply the result by the mysterious number.  

Arrange the digits of the product from lowest to highest from left to right to form a six-digit number.  

Intelligent Design

When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for

one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected

them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth,

the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of

Nature's God entitle them, a descent Respect to the Opinions of

Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel

them to the Separation.

Printed above is the first paragraph of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.  

Select any one of the first 20 words.  

Count the letters and call that number “n”.  

Move ahead “n” words, beginning with the word after your selected word.  

When you reach that “nth” word, count its letters and move ahead as many words as the new letter count.  

Continue in this manner, counting letters and moving ahead words, until you stop on a word that's beyond the fourth line. 

Do it as many times as you want, selecting a different word from the first 20 each time.