Here are some names for a few new numbers:

SILLION

"Sillion" is a number that is similar to a 'zillion', but used in more silly contexts. See also jillion, gazillion, bazillion, and kazillion.

SILLYILLION

"Sillyillion", similar to sillion, but much larger. Compare with million and milli-millillion.

ZOOTZOOTPLEX

A "zootzootplex" is a number that is much, MUCH bigger than a googolplex. It's a googolplex raised to the exponent (googolplex-1), raised to the exponent (googolplex-2), ... and so on (for a very long time), ... raised to the exponent 4, raised to the exponent 3, raised to the exponent 2, raised to the exponent 1.

 

1
2
3
4
...
(googolplex-3)
(googolplex-2)
(googolplex-1)
googolplex

Now, granted the number would have been bigger if the whole thing were flipped on it's head (starting with '23^...'!) but the way it is, at least it's a 1 followed by a honking-universe-load (or two) of zeros!

 

These words were coined by Andrew Schilling (age 4) in November 2002.

 

 

 

 


How a few large numbers compare (using the American system, as contorted as it is).

Names of some big numbers:

 

Some triffling small 'big' numbers:
 
million 10^6
billion 10^9
 
Some moderately big numbers:
 
Avogadro's number 6.02*10^23
googol 10^100 (also ten duotrigintillion, since a duotrigintillion = 10^99)
centillion 10^303
millillion 10^3003
milli-millillion 10^3000003
googolplex 10^10^100
Skewes' number 10^10^10^34
 
And some REALLY big numbers:
 
zootzootplex See above.
Graham's number Umm. How to explain this one?

Let's start with: 3^^^^3, (these should be arrows, not exponent symbols) a notation invented by Donald Knuth.

 3^3 = 27;
 3^^3 = 3^(3^3) = 3^27 = 7,625,597,484,987;
 3^^^3 = 3^^(3^^3) = 3^^(3^27) = 3^^7,625,597,484,987 =  3^(7,625,597,484,987^7,625,597,484,987)

Okay, so, 3^^^^3 would be 3^^^(3^^^3), and I'm not going to bother writing that one out in more detail!

So, to simplify matters, I'll invent some of my own notation. Instead of all those arrows, let's actually write the number of them as follows: 3^[4]^3 is the same as 3^^^^3.

Imagine how big 3^[3^^^^3]^3 would be. That's 3^^^^3 arrows in there! Reasonably large.

So how about 3^[3^[3^^^^3]^3]^3? That's as many arrows as the number we just talked about.

Continue this 63 steps from 3^^^^3, and you get Graham's number!

Moser http://www.sci.wsu.edu/math/faculty/hudelson/moser.html

 


 

Names of 'ordinary' numbers, or even more (including some made up) here!

But if you really want to learn a lot about large numbers, check out Robert Munafo's site here: http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/math/largenum.html! And for an awe-inspiring list of numbers, large and small, check out http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/math/numbers.html and it's following pages.