Do the numbers googol and googolplex really exist?
I recollect from first grade that a googol is a 1 with 100 zeroes after it. A googolplex is a google of googols (googole squared?). Seems to me it would make sense for a google to have 99 or 102 (or some other multiple of 3) zeroes — call me old fashioned. I seem to recollect this was a sort of concept number that some mathematician (Matthew Googol?) came up with. — Joe Barfield, San Antonio, TX SDSTAFF Dex replies: Let’s get something straight first. A googol is a number. A google, or rather Google, is a prosperous Internet search provider. I’ve never heard of a googole, and there wasn’t a Mr. Googol, unless you’re thinking of the Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852), who as far as I know never dabbled in mathematics. Judging from your letter, you seem to be a little confused on these points. Now then. Does a googol exist? Sure, it’s a number, like any other. The term was coined by the nine-year-old nephew of mathematics author Dr. Edward Kasner to describe the number 1 followed
