Beyond a Zillion

Date: 8/29/96 at 20:57:31
From: Anonymous
Subject: Beyond a Zillion

What is the next set of numbers after the ZILLIONS?

Thanks

Date: 8/30/96 at 13:47:7
From: Doctor Tom
Subject: Re: Beyond a Zillion

There is no such number as a "zillion".  It is basically slang, and 
indicates a very large (unspecified) number.

There are names for numbers up to about 10^63, I think, but they're 
rarely used.  Here's how the sequence starts (in the United States; 
British use different names):

1,000 thousand
1,000,000 million
1,000,000,000 billion
1,000,000,000,000 trillion
1,000,000,000,000,000 quadrillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 quintillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 sextillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 septillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 octillion

and so on.

"vigintillion" is 1 with 63 zeroes after it.

Some people use the word "googol" (no fooling) to mean the number 1 
with 100 zeroes after it.

And a "googol-plex" is a 1 with a googol zeroes after it -- a VERY 
large number.

Here's a Web page that lists the names of some very large numbers:

  http://www.marin.cc.ca.us/~jerome/ma02002.htm   

-Doctor Tom,  The Math Forum
 Check out our web site!  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/