Googol Day - April 2
Today is Googol Day, when we celebrate the googol , the number represented as 1 followed by 100 zeroes, or 10^100, or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. The number wasn't created for a mathematically important reason. Instead it was the invention of a 9 year old kid in 1920 named Milton Sirotta, though his mathematician uncle, Edward Kasner , would go on to popularize it. We celebrate Googol Day today because Kasner was born on this date in 1878. Related to the googol is the googolplex , the number represented as 1 followed by googol zeroes, or 10^googol. (Writing this number out would exceed the capabilities of my computer - or any other - computer.) If you like the idea of ridiculously large numbers, this holiday is for you.