a googol

1 ^100 (1 followed by 100 zeros)

googol is the word a 9 year old boy came up with

(1938) when he was asked to say a word that

described the biggest number he could imagine

it wasn't known at the time but, coincidentally,

it is also how many years the universe lasts

a googol is a number so big that if you started

writing it down on paper (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 etc.)

there wouldn't be enough space in the universe to finish it

back in 1938 there wasn't anything known to

exist that needed a number that big

science now knows of things that exist

that makes a googol look like a fraction