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→Current English notation: anything over a billion is rare - quadrillion isn't really ever used
{{Powers of ten}}
{{Powers of ten}}
Words for numbers above 10<sup>18</sup> may be found in dictionaries or tables of number names, but are almost never used. For years, mathematicians and computer scientists have enjoyed a sort of game of inventing systems for naming large numbers, but there is no practical need to render such names as words, and it is very questionable whether any of them should be considered to be "real" words; they are seldom encountered outside of discussions of large numbers and number naming.
Words for numbers above 10<sup>18</sup> may be found in dictionaries or tables of number names, but are almost never used. In American English, ''billions'' are used for human population or for government budgets, and very rarely ''trillions'' are used for economic measures such as [[gross national product]].
When engineers or scientists want to use large numbers, they use [[powers of ten]] notation:
* The speed of light is 3 x 10^10 meters per second
For years, mathematicians and computer scientists have enjoyed a sort of game of inventing systems for naming large numbers, but there is no practical need to render such names as words, and it is very questionable whether any of them should be considered to be "real" words; they are seldom encountered outside of discussions of large numbers and number naming.
The name ''googol,'' for a 1 followed by a hundred zeroes, i.e. 10<sup>100</sup>, was popularized by a 1940 popular book on mathematics, Kasner and Newman's classic ''Mathematics and the Imagination.''<ref name=Kasner>Edward Kasner and James Newman. ''Mathematics and the Imagination''. Originally published 1940. Current edition: Dover Publications, 2001. ISBN 0486417034.</ref> It was invented by Kasner's nine-year-old nephew.<ref name=Pilhofer>Frank Pilhofer. "[http://www.fpx.de/fp/Fun/Googolplex/ The Googolplex]." September 16, 2002. Retrieved May 23, 2007.</ref> It and Kasner's own ''googolplex'' (a 1 followed by googol of zeroes) have entered the language, but are only used figuratively. The word ''googol'' was the inspiration for the name of the search service ''Google.''
The name ''googol,'' for a 1 followed by a hundred zeroes, i.e. 10<sup>100</sup>, was popularized by a 1940 popular book on mathematics, Kasner and Newman's classic ''Mathematics and the Imagination.''<ref name=Kasner>Edward Kasner and James Newman. ''Mathematics and the Imagination''. Originally published 1940. Current edition: Dover Publications, 2001. ISBN 0486417034.</ref> It was invented by Kasner's nine-year-old nephew.<ref name=Pilhofer>Frank Pilhofer. "[http://www.fpx.de/fp/Fun/Googolplex/ The Googolplex]." September 16, 2002. Retrieved May 23, 2007.</ref> It and Kasner's own ''googolplex'' (a 1 followed by googol of zeroes) have entered the language, but are only used figuratively. The word ''googol'' was the inspiration for the name of the search service ''Google.''