googol

googol
\ \ [20] There are comparatively few ‘new’ words in the English language – that is, words which have not been made up from combinations of old words, or borrowed from other languages, but have sprung up as entirely new growths – but this is one of them. When in the 1930s the American mathematician Dr Edward Kasner was trying to think of a name for an unimaginably large number, ten to the power of a hundred, he asked his nine-year-old nephew Milton Serotta for a suggestion, and googol was what he got. It has never really caught on in technical use, although it has spawned a compound of its own – the googolplex, ten to the power of a googol.

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • Googol — [ˈguːgɔl] ist eine englischsprachige Bezeichnung für die Zahl 10100. Das entspricht einer 1 mit 100 Nullen, ausgeschrieben: 10.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • googol — 1940, in Mathematics and the Imagination, a layman s book on mathematics written by U.S. mathematicians Edward Kasner (1878 1955) and James R. Newman, the word supposedly coined a year or two before by Kasner s 9 (or 8 ) year old nephew (unnamed… …   Etymology dictionary

  • googol — ☆ googol [go͞o′gôl΄, go͞o′gäl΄ ] n. [arbitrary use by E. Kasner (1878 1955), U.S. mathematician, of a child s word] 1. the number 1 followed by 100 zeros; 10100 2. any very large number …   English World dictionary

  • Googol — For the Internet company, see Google. For other similar titles, see Google (disambiguation). A googol is the large number 10100, that is, the digit 1 followed by 100 zeros: 10,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­… …   Wikipedia

  • googol —    a unit of quantity equal to 10100 (1 followed by 100 zeroes).    The googol was invented by the American mathematician Edward Kasner (1878 1955) in 1938. According to the story, Kasner asked his nephew Milton Sirotta, who was then 8 years old …   Dictionary of units of measurement

  • googol — [20] There are comparatively few ‘new’ words in the English language – that is, words which have not been made up from combinations of old words, or borrowed from other languages, but have sprung up as entirely new growths – but this is one of… …   The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins

  • googol — UK [ˈɡuːɡɒl] / US [ˈɡuɡɔl] noun [countable] Word forms googol : singular googol plural googols the number 10100 …   English dictionary

  • Googol — Gogol (nombre) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Gogol (homonymie). En mathématiques, le gogol est le nombre dont la représentation décimale s écrit avec le chiffre 1, suivi de 100 zéros (10100). La version anglaise de ce nom… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Googol — Un googol (pronunciado aproximadamente como gugol) es un número largo 10100, es decir, la cifra uno seguida de cien ceros. El término fue acuñado en 1938 por Milton Sirotta, un niño de nueve años, sobrino del matemático americano Edward Kasner.… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • googol —   n. ten raised to the hundredth power (10100 power of a googol (10 10 100).   ).    ♦ googolplex, n. ten raised to the …   Dictionary of difficult words

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