googol

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The Word of the Day for January 4 is: 

googol   \GOO-goll\   noun
          : the figure 1 followed by 100 zeros equal to 10 to the hundredth 
power

Example sentence:
          In January 1997, astronomers Fred Adams and Gregory Laughlin 
predicted that the universe would end in a number of years equal to 
approximately one googol.

Did you know?
          Around 1930, American mathematician Edward Kasner found himself 
working with numbers as large as 10 to the 100th power -- that's a one followed 
by 100 zeroes. While it is possible to write that number using standard 
scientific notation, Dr. Kasner felt that it deserved a name of its own. 
According to his own account, Dr. Kasner asked his nine-year-old nephew, Milton 
Sirotta, to pick a name, promising the boy that he would use the word in the 
future. Milton made up the word "googol," and so the enormous number was 
christened. Dr. Kasner kept his promise, and the word has spread and been 
widely adopted by mathematicians and the general public alike.





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