what is a septillion ?

Answer 1

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

OR

10 raised to the 24th power.

Answer 2

1 followed by 24 zeros.

Answer 3

1,000 million = 1 billion (1,000,000,000)
1,000 billion = 1 quadrillion (quad = 4 sets of triple zeros)

Play this out to seven, adding 3 more zeros each time, and you have it.

Answer 4

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

a REALLY big number.

Answer 5

Contents [hide]
1 The "standard dictionary numbers"
2 Usage of names of large numbers
3 Adam, Chuquet and the origins of the "standard dictionary numbers"
4 An aide-memoire
5 The googol family
6 Extensions of the standard dictionary numbers
7 Proposed naming systems for large numbers
8 Other large numbers used in mathematics
9 See also
10 External links
11 References



[edit] The "standard dictionary numbers"
Throughout this article, exponential or scientific notation is used. 106 could also be written as the number 1 followed by six 0s, 1 000 000; 109 could be written as 1 000 000 000; and so on.

Names of numbers larger than a quadrillion are almost never used, for reasons discussed further below. It is debatable which of them should be considered real working English vocabulary and which are merely trivia, curiosities, or coinages. The following table lists those names of numbers which are found in many English dictionaries and thus have a special claim to being "real words". The "Traditional British" values shown are unused in American English and are becoming obsolete in British English, but are dominant in continental Europe and other non-English-speaking areas; see Long and short scales.

Name Short scale
(USA and Modern British) Long scale
(Traditional British) Authorities
AHD4[1] COD[2] OED2[3] OEDnew[4] RHD2[5] SOED3[6] W3[7] UM[8]
million 106 106 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
milliard 109 ✓ ✓ [9]
billion 109 1012 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
billiard 1015 [9] [9] [9] [9] [9] [9] [9] ✓
trillion 1012 1018 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
trilliard 1021 [9] [9] [9] [9] [9] [9] [9] ✓
quadrillion 1015 1024 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
quintillion 1018 1030 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
sextillion 1021 1036 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
septillion 1024 1042 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
octillion 1027 1048 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
nonillion 1030 1054 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
decillion 1033 1060 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
undecillion 1036 1066 ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
duodecillion 1039 1072 ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
tredecillion 1042 1078 ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
quattuordecillion 1045 1084 ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
quindecillion (quinquadecillion) 1048 1090 ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
sexdecillion (sedecillion) 1051 1096 ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
septendecillion 1054 10102 ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
octodecillion 1057 10108 ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
novemdecillion (novendecillion) 1060 10114 ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
vigintillion 1063 10120 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
googol 10100 10100 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ [9]
centillion 10303 10600 ✓ ✓ [9]
googolplex ✓ || || ✓ || || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || [9]

jackzillion ✓ || || ✓ || || ✓ || ✓ || ✓ || [9]


Centillion[10] appears to be the highest name ending in -illion that is included in these dictionaries. Trigintillion, often cited as a word in discussions of names of large numbers, is not included in any of them, nor are any of the names that can easily be created by extending the naming pattern (unvigintillion, duovigintillion, duoquinquagintillion, etc.).

All of the dictionaries included googol and googolplex, generally crediting it to the Kasner and Newman book and to Kasner's nephew. None include any higher names in the googol family (googolduplex, etc.). The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary comments that googol and googolplex are "not in formal mathematical use".

In the book Fast Food Nation, author Eric Schlosser claims a Geographic Information System named "Quintillion" is used by McDonald's to analyze data to help predict a new location for one of its restaurants. According to Schlosser, Quintillion uses data such as satellite photos, income, new housing plans, and road layouts to predict future incomes and population patterns.
Vigintillion is used by H. P. Lovecraft in his short story The Call of Cthulhu.

[edit] Usage of names of large numbers
Some large numbers have real referents in human experience, and their names are encountered in many contexts. For example, on one day in 2004, Google News showed 78 600 hits on billion, starting with "Turkey Repays USD 1.6 Billion In Foreign Debt". It showed 9870 hits on trillion and 56 on quadrillion: for example, "The US Department of Energy reports that in 2002, the United States economy consumed 97.6 quadrillion BTUs (quad BTUs)."[citation needed]

Names of larger numbers, however, have a tenuous, artificial existence. Although they may be found in dictionaries, these names are rarely found outside definitions, lists, and discussions of the ways in which large numbers are named. Even well-established names like sextillion are rarely used, since in the contexts of science, astronomy, and engineering, where large numbers often occur, numbers are usually written using scientific notation. In this notation, used since the 1800s, powers of ten are expressed as 10 with a numeric superscript, e.g., "The X-ray emission of the radio galaxy is 1.3·1045 ergs." When a number such as 1045 needs to be referred to in words, it is simply read out: "ten to the forty-fifth." This is just as easy to say, easier to understand, and less ambiguous than "quattuordecillion" (which means something different in the long scale and the short scale). When a number represents a quantity rather than a count, SI prefixes can be used; one says "femtosecond", not "one quadrillionth of a second", although often powers of ten are used instead of some of the very high and very low prefixes. In some cases, specialized units are used, such as the astronomer's parsec and light year or the particle physicist's barn.

Nevertheless, large numbers have an intellectual fascination and are of mathematical interest, and giving them names is one of the ways in which people try to conceptualize and understand them.

One of the first examples of this is The Sand Reckoner, in which Archimedes gave a system for naming large numbers. To do this, he called the numbers up to a myriad myriad (108) "first numbers" and called 108 itself the "unit of the second numbers". Multiples of this unit then became the second numbers, up to this unit taken a myriad myriad times, 108·108=1016. This became the "unit of the third numbers", whose multiples were the third numbers, and so on. Archimedes continued naming numbers in this way up to a myriad myriad times the unit of the 108-th numbers, i.e., and embedded this construction within another copy of itself to produce names for numbers up to Archimedes then estimated the number of grains of sand that would be required to fill the known Universe, and found that it was no more than "one thousand myriad of the eighth numbers" (1063.)

Since then, many others have engaged in the pursuit of conceptualizing and naming numbers that really have no existence outside of the imagination. One motivation for such a pursuit is that attributed to the inventor of the word googol, who was certain that any finite number "had to have a name". Another possible motivation is competition between students in computer programming courses, where a common exercise is that of writing a program to output numbers in the form of English words.

It should be noted, too, that most names proposed for large numbers belong to systematic schemes which are extensible. Thus, many names for large numbers are simply the result of following a naming system to its logical conclusion—or extending it further.

In this article, we present some names that have been given to large numbers, and the context and authority for the names. These numbers are almost pure mathematical abstractions, not physical realities. The names for such numbers are very rarely used. They may have a claim staked out for them in reference books, but they remain more in the nature of curiosities, trivia, or mathematical recreation than genuine working English vocabulary.


[edit] Adam, Chuquet and the origins of the "standard dictionary numbers"
The words bymillion and trimillion were first recorded in 1475 in a manuscript of Jehan Adam. Subsequently, Nicolas Chuquet wrote a book Triparty en la science des nombres which was not published during Chuquet's lifetime. However, most of it was copied by Estienne de La Roche for a portion of his 1520 book, L'arismetique. Chuquet's book contains a passage in which he shows a large number marked off into groups of six digits, with the comment:

Ou qui veult le premier point peult signiffier million Le second point byllion Le tiers poit tryllion Le quart quadrillion Le cinqe quyllion Le sixe sixlion Le sept.e septyllion Le huyte ottyllion Le neufe nonyllion et ainsi des ault's se plus oultre on vouloit preceder

(Or if you prefer the first mark can signify million, the second mark byllion, the third mark tryllion, the fourth quadrillion, the fifth quyillion, the sixth sixlion, the seventh septyllion, the eighth ottyllion, the ninth nonyllion and so on with others as far as you wish to go).

Chuquet is sometimes credited with inventing the names million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, and so forth. This is an oversimplification.

Million was certainly not invented by Adam or Chuquet. Milion is an Old French word thought to derive from Old Italian milione, an intensification of mille, a thousand. That is, a million is a big thousand, much as 1728 is a great gross.
From the way in which Adam and Chuquet use the words, it can be inferred that they were recording usage rather than inventing it. One obvious possibility is that words similar to billion and trillion were already in use and well-known, but that Chuquet, an expert in exponentiation, extended the naming scheme and invented the names for the higher powers.
Notice that Chuquet's names are only similar to, not identical to, the modern ones.
Adam and Chuquet used the long scale of powers of a million; that is, Adam's bymillion (Chuquet's byllion) denoted 1012, and Adam's trimillion (Chuquet's tryllion) denoted 1018.


[edit] An aide-memoire
An easy way to find the value of the above numbers in the short scale is to take the number indicated by the prefix (such as 2 in billion, 4 in quadrillion, 18 in octodecillion, etc.), add one to it, and multiply that result by 3. For example, in a trillion, the prefix is tri, meaning 3. Adding 1 to it gives 4. Now multiplying 4 by 3 gives us 12, which is the power to which 10 is to be raised to express a short-scale trillion in scientific notation: one trillion = 1012.

In the long scales, this is done simply by multiplying the number from the prefix by 6. For example, in a billion, the prefix is bi, meaning 2. Multiplying 2 by 6 gives us 12, which is the power to which 10 is to be raised to express a long-scale billion in scientific notation: one billion = 1012.

These mechanisms are illustrated in the table in long and short scales.


[edit] The googol family
The names googol and googolplex were invented by Edward Kasner's nephew, Milton Sirotta, and introduced in Kasner and Newman's 1940 book, Mathematics and the Imagination,[11] in the following passage:

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 zeroes after it. He was very certain that this number was not infinite, and therefore equally certain that it had to have a name. At the same time 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 actually 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 is, then, a specific finite number, with so many zeros after the 1 that the number of zeros is a googol.

Value Name Authority
10100 Googol Kasner and Newman, dictionaries (see above)
10googol = Googolplex Kasner and Newman, dictionaries (see above)

Conway and Guy [12] have suggested that N-plex be used as a name for 10N. This gives rise to the name googolplexplex for 10googolplex; however, the word googleplexian is given by one site. In addition, the terms googolduplex, googoltriplex, etc. have been coined by various persons for the numbers 10googolplex, 10googolduplex, etc.[citation needed] Conway and Guy [12] have proposed that N-minex be used as a name for 10-N, giving rise to the name googolminex for the reciprocal of a googolplex. None of these names are in wide use, nor are any currently found in dictionaries.


[edit] Extensions of the standard dictionary numbers
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This table illustrates several systems for naming large numbers, and shows how they can be extended past decillion.

Traditional British usage assigned new names for each power of one million (the long scale). It was adapted from French usage, and is similar to the system that was documented or invented by Chuquet.

Traditional American usage (which, oddly enough, was also adapted from French usage but at a later date), and modern British usage, assigns new names for each power of one thousand (the short scale.) Thus, a billion is 109, a trillion is 1012, and so forth. Due to its dominance in the financial world (and by the US-dollar) this was adopted for official United Nations documents.

Traditional French usage has varied; in 1948, France, which had been using the short scale, reverted to the long scale.

The term milliard is unambiguous and always means 109. It is almost never seen in American usage, rarely in British usage, and frequently in European usage. The term is sometimes attributed to a French mathematician named Jacques Pelletier du Mans circa 1550 (for this reason, the long scale is also known as the Chuquet-Peletier system), but the Oxford English Dictionary states that the term derives from post-Classical Latin term milliartum, which became milliare and then milliart and finally our modern term.

With regard to names ending in -illiard, milliard is certainly in widespread use in languages other than English, but the degree of actual use of the larger terms is questionable. For example, as of 2004, Google searches on French-language pages for trillion, quadrillion, and quintillion return 6630, 312, and 127 hits respectively, whilst searches for trilliard and quadrilliard return only 102 and 7 hits respectively. However, one has to take into account that these large numbers are not often needed and that scientists almost always use scientific notation.

Names of reciprocals of large numbers do not need to be listed here, because they are regularly formed by adding -th, e.g. quattuordecillionth, centillionth, etc.

For additional details, see Billion (disambiguation) and long scale.

Value USA and Modern British
("short scale") Traditional British
("long scale") Traditional European (Pelletier)
("long scale")
109 Billion Thousand million Milliard
1012 Trillion Billion Billion
1015 Quadrillion Thousand billion Billiard
1018 Quintillion Trillion Trillion
1021 Sextillion Thousand trillion Trilliard
1024 Septillion Quadrillion Quadrillion
1027 Octillion Thousand quadrillion Quadrilliard
1030 Nonillion Quintillion Quintillion
1033 Decillion Thousand quintillion Quintilliard
1036 Undecillion Sextillion Sextillion
1039 Duodecillion Thousand sextillion Sextilliard
1042 Tredecillion Septillion Septillion
1045 Quattuordecillion Thousand septillion Septilliard
1048 Quindecillion Octillion Octillion
1051 Sexdecillion Thousand octillion Octilliard
1054 Septendecillion Nonillion Nonillion
1057 Octodecillion Thousand nonillion Nonilliard
1060 Novemdecillion Decillion Decillion
1063 Vigintillion Thousand decillion Decilliard
1066 Unvigintillion Undecillion Undecillion
1069 Duovigintillion Thousand undecillion Undecilliard
1072 Trevigintillion Duodecillion Duodecillion
1075 Quattuorvigintillion Thousand duodecillion Duodecilliard
1078 Quinvigintillion Tredecillion Tredecillion
1081 Sexvigintillion Thousand tredecillion Tredecilliard
1084 Septenvigintillion Quattuordecillion Quattuordecillion
1087 Octovigintillion Thousand quattuordecillion Quattuordecilliard
1090 Novemvigintillion Quindecillion Quindecillion
1093 Trigintillion Thousand quindecillion Quindecilliard
1096 Untrigintillion Sexdecillion Sexdecillion
1099 Duotrigintillion Thousand sexdecillion Sexdecilliard
10100 Googol
(Ten duotrigintillion) Ten thousand sexdecillion Ten sexdecilliard
10102 Tretrigintillion Septendecillion Septendecillion
10105 Quattuortrigintillion Thousand septendecillion Septendecilliard
10108 Quintrigintillion Octodecillion Octodecillion
10111 Sextrigintillion Thousand octodecillion Octodecilliard
10114 Septentrigintillion Novemdecillion Novemdecillion
10117 Octotrigintillion Thousand novemdecillion Novemdecilliard
10120 Novemtrigintillion Vigintillion Vigintillion
10123 Quadragintillion Thousand vigintillion Vigintilliard
10126 Unquadragintillion Unvigintillion Unvigintillion
10129 Duoquadragintillion Thousand unvigintillion Unvigintilliard
10132 Trequadragintillion Duovigintillion Duovigintillion
10135 Quattuorquadragintillion Thousand duovigintillion Duovigintilliard
10138 Quintoquadagintillion Trevigintillion Trevigintillion
10141 Sexquadragintillion Thousand trevigintillion Trevigintilliard
10144 Septenquadragintillion Quattuorvigintillion Quattuorvigintillion
10147 Octoquadragintillion Thousand quattuorvigintillion Quattuorvigintilliard
10150 Novemquadragintillion Quinvigintillion Quinvigintillion
10153 Quinquagintillion Thousand quinvigintillion Quinvigintilliard
10156 Unquinquagintillion Sexvigintillion Sexvigintillion
10159 Duoquinquagintillion Thousand sexvigintillion Sexvigintilliard
10162 Trequinquagintillion Septenvigintillion Septenvigintillion
10165 Quattuorquinquagintillion Thousand septenvigintillion Septenvigintilliard
10168 Quinquinquagintillion Octovigintillion Octovigintillion
10171 Sexquinquagintillion Thousand octovigintillion Octovigintilliard
10174 Septenquinquagintillion Novemvigintillion Novemvigintillion
10177 Octoquinquagintillion Thousand novemvigintillion Novemvigintilliard
10180 Novemquinquagintillion Trigintillion Trigintillion
10183 Sexagintillion Thousand trigintillion Trigintilliard
10186 Unsexagintillion ... ...
10189 Duosexagintillion ... ...
10192 Tresexagintillion ... ...
10195 Quattuorsexagintillion ... ...
10198 Quinsexagintillion ... ...
10201 Sexsexagintillion ... ...
10204 Septsexagintillion ... ...
10207 Octosexagintillion ... ...
10210 Novemsexagintillion ... ...
10213 Septuagintillion Thousand quintrigintillion Quintrigintilliard
10216 Unseptuagintillion ... ...
10219 Duoseptuagintillion ... ...
10222 Treseptuagintillion ... ...
10225 Quattuorseptuagintillion ... ...
10228 Quinseptuagintillion ... ...
10231 Sexseptuagintillion ... ...
10234 Septseptuagintillion ... ...
10237 Octoseptuagintillion ... ...
10240 Novemseptuagintillion Quadragintillion Quadragintillion
10243 Octogintillion Thousand quadragintillion Quadragintilliard
10246 Unoctogintillion ... ...
10249 Duooctogintillion ... ...
10252 Treoctogintillion ... ...
10255 Quattuoroctogintillion ... ...
10258 Quinoctogintillion ... ...
10261 Sexoctogintillion ... ...
10264 Septoctogintillion ... ...
10267 Octooctogintillion ... ...
10270 Novemoctogintillion Quinquadragintillion Quinquadragintillion
10273 Nonagintillion Thousand Quinquadragintillion Quinquadragintilliard
10276 Unnonagintillion ... ...
10279 Duononagintillion ... ...
10282 Trenonagintillion ... ...
10285 Quattuornonagintillion ... ...
10288 Quinnonagintillion ... ...
10291 Sexnonagintillion ... ...
10294 Septnonagintillion ... ...
10297 Octononagintillion ... ...
10300 Novemnonagintillion Quinquagintillion Quinquagintillion
10303 Centillion Thousand quinquagintillion Quinquagintilliard
10306 Cenuntillion ... ...
10309 Cendotillion ... ...
10312 Centretillion ... ...
10360 Sexagintillion Sexagintillion
10363 Thousand sexagintillion Sexagintilliard
10420 Septuagintillion Septuagintillion
10423 Thousand septuagintillion Septuagintilliard
10480 Octogintillion Octogintillion
10483 Thousand octogintillion Octogintilliard
10540 ... Nonagintillion Nonagintillion
10543 ... Thousand nonagintillion Nonagintilliard
10600 ... Centillion Centillion
10603 Ducentillion Thousand centillion Centilliard
10903 Trecentillion ... ...
101203 Quadringentillion ... ..
101503 Quingentillion ... ...
101803 Sescentillion ... ...
102103 Septingentillion ... ...
102403 Octingentillion Thousand quadringentillion Quadringentilliard
102703 Nongentillion Thousand quadringentiquinquagintillion Quadringentiquinquagintilliard
103003 Millillion ... ...
10880324 Davillion ... ...
10880629 Angelillion ... ...
10googol Googolplex ... ...
10googolplex Jackzillion ... ...


[edit] Proposed naming systems for large numbers
This system will itself become ambiguous for numbers much larger than this, with exponents of a size which the Romans rarely counted to, like 106,000,258.

John Horton Conway and Richard Guy have proposed[12] a consistent set of conventions which permit the system to provide "English names", in principle, for any integer whatever