Controversy over zeros: nine or twelve?
Due to the confusion about how many zeros there were, there were many incidents and even conflicts. for instance, in the United States of America in the nineteenth century, a billion was called a figure 100 000 000. Therefore, people were called billionaires long before., how did the first owner appear 1 000 000 000 dollars.
A similar story happened with the number one million. The word "billion", like "million", comes from "thousand". Then add the Italian magnifying suffix. The discrepancy in the understanding of how many zeros are in one billion are associated with different systems of naming numbers. There are two:
- long;
- short.
In England they used a long scale, and the United States is short. According to the first of them, the subsequent number, which comes after a million was more than the previous one in 1 000 000 time. One billion according to this system is equal to "a million million". Therefore, the figure contained twelve zeros. The short system was based on, that each subsequent number, which comes after a million more than the previous one a thousand times. On this scale, a billion is called a billion, but it is familiar to us 9 zeros. Such discrepancies caused a lot of controversy and conflicts among scientists and economists..
AT 1974 in England they began to use the short system. But for many years, English scientists continued to argue about how many zeros in a billion, and used the old scale. Only over time there was a complete transition to the new rules. The short system is now adopted in most countries of the world, in which after a billion comes a trillion.
Let's count to a decilillion
Let's count some more. for instance, Matchbox, magnified a thousand times, will be the size of a sixteen-story building. A million times magnification will give "boxes", which is larger in area than St. Petersburg. Magnified a billion times, boxes will not fit on our planet. On the contrary, The earth will fit in such a "box" 25 time!
If you count further, then the scale of the Earth will be insufficient. A trillion-fold magnified box could contain all the planets of the solar system along with their satellites, as well as asteroids and comets. In the box, which is magnified by a quadrillion times, The solar system could fit completely.
An increase in the box gives an increase in its volume. It will be almost impossible to imagine such volumes with further increase.. For ease of perception, let's try to enlarge not the object itself, and its quantity, and place the matchboxes in space. This will make it easier to navigate.. Quintillion boxes lined up in one row, would extend beyond the stars α Centauri by 9 trillion kilometers.
Another thousandfold increase (sextillion) will allow matchboxes, lined up, to block our entire Milky Way galaxy in the transverse direction. A septillion matchboxes would stretch over 50 quintillion kilometers. Such a distance the light can fly for 5 million 260 thousand years. And the boxes laid out in two rows would stretch to the Andromeda galaxy.
There are only three numbers left: octillion, nonillion and decillion. Have to strain your imagination. An octillion boxes form a continuous line at 50 sixteen kilometers. It's over five billion light years. Not every telescope, mounted on one edge of such an object, could see its opposite edge.
We consider further? A non-million matchboxes would fill the entire space of the part of the Universe known to mankind with an average density 6 pieces per cubic meter. By earthly standards, it seems to be not very much - 36 matchboxes in the back of a standard "Gazelle". But a nonillion matchboxes will have a mass billions of times greater than the mass of all material objects in the known Universe combined.
Decillion. The quantity, rather, even the majesty of this giant from the world of numbers is difficult to imagine. Just one example - six decillion boxes would no longer fit in the entire part of the Universe accessible to humanity for observation..
Even more strikingly, the majesty of this number is visible, if you do not multiply the number of boxes, and enlarge the object itself. Matchbox, multiplied by a decillion, would contain the entire part of the Universe known to mankind 20 trillion times. It’s impossible to even imagine this..
Small calculations showed, how huge the numbers, known to mankind for several centuries. In modern mathematics, numbers are known many times greater than a decillion, but they are used only in complex mathematical calculations. Only professional mathematicians have to deal with such numbers..
The most famous (and the smallest) of these numbers is googol, denoted by one followed by one hundred zeros. Googol is greater than the total number of elementary particles in the visible part of the universe. This makes googol an abstract number., which has little practical use.
What is the biggest number?
In the early twentieth century, the U.S. mathematician Kasner took a stroll, in the park with nephews. The conversation turned to big numbers. In the course of the conversation, a discussion arose about the name of a number with one hundred zeros. It revealed, that at that time it did not exist. One of the boys came up with his own designation for this number - googol.
The figure has no serious practical significance, but firmly entered into use. Googol is used to show the difference between an incredibly large number and the concept of infinity during training..
Soon the same mathematician proposed a name for a number with a googol of zeros.. The term was named googolplex. This figure significantly exceeds the number of elementary particles in space..
Watch the video on the biggest numbers:
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