EXPONENTS AND POWERS - INTRO STORY (2)

The Story of Googol and Googolplex

A googol is a large number equal to  (i.e., a 1 with 100 zeros following it). 

Written out explicitly,
10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Edward Kasner (April 2, 1878 – January 7, 1955) was a prominent American mathematician who was appointed Tutor on Mathematics in the Columbia University Mathematics Department.
In 1940, with James R. Newman, Kasner co-wrote a non-technical book surveying the field of mathematics, called Mathematics and the Imagination. It was in this book that the term "googol" was first introduced:

 If you start reading the book at the beginning, you'll come to the first chapter, titled "New Names For Old." Here is the relevant passage about the invention of the words "googol" and "googolplex":

"Words of wisdom are spoken by children at least as often as by scientists. The name 'googol' was invented by a child (Dr. Kasner's nine-year-old nephew) who was asked to think up a name for a very big number, namely, 1 with a hundred zeros after it. He was very certain this number was not infinite, and therefore equal certain that it had to have a name. At the same time he that he suggested 'googol' he gave a name for a still larger number: 'Googolplex.' A googolplex is much larger than a googol, but is still finite, as the inventor of the name was quick to point out. It was first suggested that a googolplex should be 1, followed by writing zeros until you got tired. This is a description of what would happen if one actually tried to write a googolplex, but different people get tired at different times and it would never do to have Carnera a better mathematician than Dr. Einstein, simply because he had more endurance. The googolplex then, is a specific finite number, with so many zeros after the 1 that the number of zeros is a googol. A googolplex is much bigger than a googol, much bigger even than a googol times a googol. A googol times a googol would be 1 with 200 zeros, whereas a googolplex is 1 with a googol of zeros. You will got some idea of the size of this very large but finite number from the fact that there would not be enough room to write it, if you went to the farthest star, touring all the nebulae and putting down more zeros every inch of the way."

--MATHEMATICS AND THE IMAGINATION, Kasner and Newman, page 23.

Lets us explore the concept of exponents...