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"Googol" (Math Vocabulary)
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Googol | \(n.\) the number represented by 1 followed by a hundred zeroes, \(10^{100}\). (This exceeds the number of atoms in the universe, which is only to the order of \(10^{85}\).) | Source/Credits to Collins dictionary of Mathematics by Ephiraim Borowski & Jonathan Borwein |
Origin/History
Featured in the book Mathematics and the Imagination by authors Edward Kasner and James R. Newman. Coined by Kasner's nephew who uttered the word after being asked a name for a large number. Possible reference to comic character Barney Google.
(Credits to editor doug of etymonline: https://www.etymonline.com/word/googol.)
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[2610.03660] Single-Sample Prophet Inequalities: A Combinatorial to Single-Item Reduction by Shuchi Chawla, Trung Dang
[Submitted on Oct. 02, 2026]
Subject(s): Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT); Data Structures and Algorithms (cs.DS)
Section(s): Computer Science > Computer Science and Game Theory
Citation: arXiv:2610.03660 [cs.GT]
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.03660
Credit(s): https://arxiv.org/, Trung Dang
Notes
As you know by now, this poor word has been overshadowed by tech giant brand name Google. Not only that, but the company name Google has been ingrained into our vernacular; used as a verb meaning "to search" on their website google.com—"Google it." Unless it's in written form, for literature or research, saying this word may make listeners assume you mean the popular online search engine. Numerically speaking, this word also gets beaten out by infinity, or informal/slang terms like gazillion, without any specification on the word's actual number.
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