Googol for Kids: What a Googol Is and Who Named It

0:00 Welcome to Maths Is Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Before we start, a very happy belated sixth birthday to Allie. Yeah, happy birthday, Allie. We hear you listen with your sister and dad every morning on the way to school. We hope you had a wonderful birthday. And Allie, since you just turned six and you're learning about big numbers, we thought today would be the perfect day to look at a number so huge it almost breaks your brain.

0:30 Wait, how big are we talking? Well, if you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode. Okay, okay, but seriously, how big? Like a million? A billion? Way bigger, Finn. Picture everything you've ever seen. Every grain of sand on every beach, every leaf on every tree, every drop of water in the ocean, and every star in the night sky.

0:59 Okay, I'm picturing it. That's a lot of stuff. It feels like too much stuff to even think about. Now, imagine if you broke all of that stuff down into the tiniest invisible pieces called atoms. The number we are looking at today is bigger than all the atoms in the entire known universe. What? That can't be real.

1:23 That sounds impossible! It is real. And the absolute best part? The name for this giant, impossible number was made up by a nine-year-old kid. A kid named a number bigger than the universe? How does that even happen? Was he some kind of genius working in a laboratory? Not at all. Let's go back to around 1920, to a place near New York.

1:48 Okay, so a little over a hundred years ago, people were driving early cars and listening to the radio. Exactly. There was a famous American mathematician named Edward Kazner. He spent his whole life thinking about really, really big numbers. Like thousands, millions, trillions? Way bigger. Kasner was trying to understand numbers that were so huge, they almost felt like infinity.

2:17 But they weren't infinity. They were finite numbers with a fixed, definite size. Right, because infinity just goes on forever. It never stops. But a finite number has to stop somewhere, even if it takes a long time to get there. You've got it! So Kasna was thinking about one specific number. A one followed by exactly a hundred zeros.

2:41 A one with a hundred zeros after it? I can't even picture what that looks like on a page. Try imagining writing that out. You write a one and then zero, zero, zero, zero, all the way until you've written a hundred of them. I feel like my hand would cramp just thinking about it. That would take up an entire notebook page.

3:03 It's a huge number. But Kazna had a problem. He didn't have a good name for it. The proper scientific name was something like ten duo trigentilian. That sounds terrible. Nobody is going to remember that. Right? It sounds too complicated and stiff. So, Kasna was taking a walk in the woods with his two nephews.

3:28 One of them was a nine-year-old boy named Milton Sorota. The kid who named the number. I love this. Yes. Kasna turned to Milton and asked him a simple question. What should we call a one followed by a hundred zeros? That's a lot of pressure for a nine-year-old on a walk in the woods. What did he say?

3:49 Well, Milton thought about it. He figured a number that's silly and giant didn't need a boring grown-up name. It needed a silly name. So he told his uncle, call it a Google.

4:02unknown Ha ha!

4:03 A Google! That sounds like baby talk. Or maybe a funny alien from a cartoon. I know! It sounds completely ridiculous. But Kasna absolutely loved it. He started using it right away. So the real mathematical name for a one followed by a hundred zeros is officially a Google. Just because a nine-year-old said so on a walk in the woods?

4:29 That is so cool. I wish I could name a number. But here is the amazing thing. Milton wasn't finished. Once he started thinking about giant numbers, his imagination just kept going. He dreamed up an even bigger number. Wait, bigger than a one with a hundred zeros? How? Yes. Milton called this new super giant number a Googleplex.

4:56 Ooh, a Googleplex? That sounds serious. Like a villain's secret base. How big is a Googleplex? Well, Milton's very first idea was that a Google Plex should be a one, followed by writing zeros until you get tired.

5:13unknown Ha ha!

5:14 Until you get tired! That is the best math rule I have ever heard. I love Milton. It's brilliant, right? So playful. But his uncle, being a strict mathematician, had to be a little more precise. Kalsner pointed out that different people get tired at different times. True. I would probably get tired after about 20 zeros.

5:38 But a marathon runner might write zeros for an hour. Exactly. So Kausner fixed the rule so it would be the same for everyone. He said a Google Plex is a one followed by a Google of zeros. Whoa, hang on. Let me process that. Take your time. A one followed by a Google of zeros. But a Google is a one with a hundred zeros.

6:04 So to write a Googleplex, you'd have to write down You couldn't. You could never, ever write it down. Why couldn't I write it down? If I had enough paper and I lived long enough. Because of how big the universe is, Finn. Let's look at the universe for a second to really see this. Scientists have actually tried to estimate how many atoms there are in the whole known universe.

6:30 Atoms of a tiny building blocks of everything, right? Like the microscopic stuff that makes up you, me, the Earth, the Sun. Yes, everything. So the number of atoms out there must be mind-bogglingly huge. And scientists estimate there are around a one followed by 80 zeros worth of atoms in the observable universe.

6:53 A one with 80 zeros? Wait a minute. I think I see where this is going. Do you see the jolt? A Google is a one with a hundred zeros. But the whole universe only has a one with eighty zeros worth of atoms. That means a Google is bigger than the number of atoms in the entire universe. Yes, it is much, much bigger.

7:17 Even if you took every single atom in the universe and magically turned each atom into a piece of paper, you still wouldn't have enough paper to write down all the zeros in a Googleplex. My brain is literally spinning right now. It's too big. It's the biggest number ever. Actually, it's not. What? How can anything be bigger than a Googleplex?

7:42 You just said the universe isn't big enough to hold it. Because numbers don't need physical space. They exist in our minds. What happens if you take a Googleplex and just add one? Oh! Oh wow! It just keeps going! A Googleplex Plus one! A Googleplex Plus Two! That is the secret magic of counting. Big numbers like a Google show us that counting never runs out of room.

8:08 There is no biggest number. You can always just add one more, forever. That makes me feel kind of dizzy. But also really amazed. We just made up a number so big the universe can't even hold it. But math still has room for it to grow. Math always has room, and the rest of the world found out about Milton's wonderful word in 1940.

8:33 That's when Edward Kasner put the word in a famous book called Mathematics and the Imagination. Did people like the word? They completely loved it. The word Google spread all around the world. People loved the idea that this mind-bendingly huge number had such a playful, silly name given to it by a kid.

8:56 Do mathematicians actually use a Google for anything? Like, do they use it to measure distances in space? Not really for doing equations or measuring space. It's not a tool like that. It's more like a giant signpost. Kasner used it to help us see the difference between a really, really big number and infinity.

9:19 Because a Google is gigantic, but it still stops. It has a definite end. Infinity never stops. Exactly. And even though mathematicians might not use it to calculate things, you actually meet this word all the time in your everyday life. I do? I'm pretty sure I've never said the word Google before today.

9:41 You might not say it, but you definitely use something named after it. Thin, have you ever searched for something on the internet? Wait, Google? Like the search engine. Yes. When the creators of the Google search engine were trying to name their company, they wanted a name that meant a massive, almost endless amount of information.

10:04 So they named it as a play on Milton's word, Google. So every time someone searches the internet for a homework answer or a funny cat video, they are actually using a nine-year-old kid's made-up word for a giant number. That is the coolest fun fact ever. Alright, Finn, it's that time. Time for the quiz!

10:25 Are you ready? I think so. My brain is still recovering from the Googleplex. But I love that we learned all of this. Let's do this. First question. What is the mathematical name for the giant number that is a one followed by a hundred zeros? Next one. What was the name of the mathematician uncle who studied these big numbers?

10:56 Question three. What was the full name of the nine-year-old boy who invented the word? Here's number four. What was Milton's very first idea for how many zeros should be in a Googleplex? Last question. What famous internet search engine got its name as a play on this giant number? Great job! Let's go through the answers and see how you did.

11:31 The first answer is a Google, that one with a hundred zeros. For question two, the mathematician uncle was Edward Kasner. The answer to number three is his nephew, Milton Sorota. For question four, his first idea was writing zeros until you get tired. And the final answer is, Google! Every time you search, you're using Milton's idea.

11:59 You know, I really don't think I'll ever look at a search engine the same way again. Or numbers, really. Just knowing they go on forever. I love that feeling. Knowing that no matter how huge a number gets, counting always has room for one more. It makes the world feel so full of possibility. Yeah, it's like an endless playground where you can just keep building.

12:22 If this episode boggled your mind like a Googleplex, please leave us a five-star review. Just scroll down and tap the stars. It helps other kids find the show. And make sure to follow us wherever you're listening so you never miss a new idea. Oh, and we have sister shows too. History, science, and philosophy is not boring.

12:42 Go give those a listen and a follow as well. Want your name on the show like Ali? Send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com. See you next time on Maths is not boring. Bye everyone! Keep counting. Bye.