Learned this at work last week (it was semi-work related though!):

If the number Googolplex (1 with a googol (1 followed by 100 zeros) of zeros) were attempted to be written in Microsoft Word, all the computers in the world would not even come close to being able to handle the filesize.

Considering there are only about 2.5×10⁸⁹elementary particles in the observable universe.  I'd say you are going to have a hard time writing 10¹⁰⁰ digits, no matter what the system.  Of course, I guess the easy way to do it is to write it in base googol.  Then it is just... actually I have no idea what that would be, so I guess it's not the easy way.  At least not for me.  Maybe someone here with better math skills could say if that would make it easier.

Well, two in base two is 10, three in base three is 10, ten in base ten is 10, and ... yes, googol in base googol is 10. And that is not many digits at all :) 

Hugh wrote:

Well, two in base two is 10, three in base three is 10, ten in base ten is 10, and ... yes, googol in base googol is 10. And that is not many digits at all :) 

We were talking about googolplex, although I guess googolplex in base googolplex is 10, which would indeed be the easy way out. 

The specific problem I posed (for no good reason) was googolplex in base googol.  So 10^n in base n where n = Googol.  10 seconds of googling didn't tell me if there was a general solution to 10^n in base n.

eh...?

Ozyman wrote:

The specific problem I posed (for no good reason) was googolplex in base googol.  So 10^n in base n where n = Googol.  10 seconds of googling didn't tell me if there was a general solution to 10^n in base n.

Ah yes, this better than just punting to silliness. Googolplex is 10^(10^100).

10^(10^100) = (10^100)^k is essentially what we're asking (n is the number of 0's after a 1 we'd be using base googol).  But (10^100)^k = 10^(100k), so 100k = 10^100.  k = 10^100/10^2 = 10^98.  So, not a big improvement - 10^98 zeroes in base googol instead of 10^100 zeroes in base 10!!!

The base (googol) was a power of 10 whose exponent was also a power of 10, so that won't work for the general 10^n base n.

Ozyman wrote:

Considering there are only about 2.5×10⁸⁹elementary particles in the observable universe.  I'd say you are going to have a hard time writing 10¹⁰⁰ digits, no matter what the system.  Of course, I guess the easy way to do it is to write it in base googol.  Then it is just... actually I have no idea what that would be, so I guess it's not the easy way.  At least not for me.  Maybe someone here with better math skills could say if that would make it easier.

Sounds like there is the possibility that the observable universe IS Microsoft's attempt to write this number and store the file size...

...which means the Big Bang was really just the moment when Bill Gates flipped the power switch in his mom's basement.

Thanks for laying that out for me.  Makes sense and gives me another perspective on just how huge a googolplex is!

AttilaTheHun wrote:

Ozyman wrote:

Considering there are only about 2.5×10⁸⁹elementary particles in the observable universe.  I'd say you are going to have a hard time writing 10¹⁰⁰ digits, no matter what the system.  Of course, I guess the easy way to do it is to write it in base googol.  Then it is just... actually I have no idea what that would be, so I guess it's not the easy way.  At least not for me.  Maybe someone here with better math skills could say if that would make it easier.

Sounds like there is the possibility that the observable universe IS Microsoft's attempt to write this number and store the file size...

...which means the Big Bang was really just the moment when Bill Gates flipped the power switch in his mom's basement.

I can't speak for the rest of you, but I'm pretty sure I don't have enough elementary particles in my brain to think about beginning to begin the process of thinking about beginning the process of having a clue how big a googleplex is.

...and Gates said "Let there be -plex."

More useless knowledge, relating to strategy games:  There are nearly 319,000,000,000 different ways to play the first 4 moves of a game of Chess.

And a piece of knowledge, relating to nothing else:  Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike every year than all factory workers who work for Nike in Malaysia combined.

"Eunoia" is the shortest word containing all five vowels. One of its meanings is "beautiful thinking", a notion I rather like.

Anybody know if there's a word containing all consonants?

There's tons of them.  I have a mother-in-law who really likes Scrabble.
http://www.tnellen.com/ted/scrabble/scrabble_words_others.html

Apparently not, but the word with the most consonents is:

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

at 25

Although apparently that isn't a "real" word.

Antidisestablishmentarianism has 17

I like this one:

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg

Proper nouns don't count.

Ha! In a world of chemical, technical, translated, and coined words the proper nouns don't have a place?

This article covers most of these weird words:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_words_with_uncommon_properties