Could you count to one googol if you had that much time?

Question

Could you count to one googol if you had that much time?

Answer 1

Assuming you could count one number per second, it would take you 3.17x10^92 years to complete that task.  That's not just longer than the age of the Universe (purportedly between 13 and 14 billion years), it's longer than the age of the Universe to the eighth power.  In fact, it's probably longer than the Universe has left, under almost any scheme of how it all ends.

Remember, that assumes you can count at one number per second.  If you say each number out loud, there's no way you can reach that speed.  Consider the number immediately before one googol:

9 duotrigintillion, 999 untrigintillion, 999 trigintillion, 999 novemvigintillion, 999 octovigintillion, 999 septvigintillion, 999 sexvigintilion, 999 quinvigintillion, 999 quattuorvigintillion, 999 trevigintillion, 999 duovigintillion, 999 unvigintillion, 999 vigintillion, 999 novemdecillion, 999 octodecillion, 999 septdecillion, 999 sexdecillion, 999 quindecillion, 999 quattuordecillion, 999 tredecillion, 999 duodecillion, 999 undecillion, 999 decillion, 999 nonillion, 999 octillion, 999 septillion, 999 sextillion, 999 quintillion, 999 quadrillion, 999 trillion, 999 billion, 999 million, 999 thousand, 999.

If YOU can say that all in one second, more power to you.

You implied there was no time limit, but let's say you wanted to count to one googol in your life.  How many numbers would you have to count per second in order to meet your goal before you croaked?

I'm going to make some assumptions: I'll assume that you're 25 and will live to be 90.  That's 65 years of counting ahead of you.  Now let's say you spend 6 hours of each day asleep.  That removes one-quarter of your counting time (unless you can count in your sleep), so you really only have about 48.75 years left to count.  Using 365.25 days as the length of one year, that gives you roughly 1.54 billion seconds of counting time.  That's a lot of seconds, but it absolutely pales in comparison to a googol.  Bad news, you'd have to count 6.50x10^90 numbers EVERY SECOND to reach one googol before you shuffle off your mortal coil.

I hope I've made my point: regardless of whether you're mortal or not, no, you won't ever count to one googol.  Don't even get me started on a googolplex.

Answer 2

the problem would be finding names for the numbers

Answer 3

Of course you could but I wouldn't advise it

Answer 4

Since a google only has 101 digits, so there is no question that you have the mental capability to count up to a googol, given enough time.

However, a better question is, do you have the attention span? Hmmm... I mean, how long would it take? If you count one number per second, it would take 10^100 seconds, which is about 3×10^92 years.

Answer 5

You could count to a google^google if you had enough time.

Answer 6

Yes, you could. Nothing's impossible... But I wouldn't want to... Not even for all the wealth in this world. I know it sounds weird for a maths lover to say this, but nah I wouldn't count all the way up to a googol.

I hope that helps. :)

me07.

Answer 7

You may or may not be able to. Quite likely the universe will not survive that long in a form that life like us can exist.

Consider this:

If EVERYONE on Earth (about 6 billion people) counted once per second it would take more than 5000000000000000000000000000000000000000... YEARS to reach a googol.

Yale Simkin

Answer 8

If you could count 5 numbers per second, it would take about 6.34196*10^91 years.

I found that out by taking:

10^100 (1 googol), dividing it by 5 (for 5 numbers per second), dividing it by 60 (for 60 seconds per minute), dividing it by 60 (for 60 minutes per hour), dividing it by 24 (for 24 hours per day), and dividing it by 365 (for 365 days per year...ignoring leap year).

10^100 / 5 / 60 / 60 / 24 / 365

That would be well over a lifetime. If it were to take 40 years you would need to count this many numbers per second:

40 = 10^100 / x / 60 / 60 / 24 / 365

x = 7.92745 * 10^90

(expanding it out, it is about 7 927 447 995 941 146 626 078 132 927 447 995 941 146 626 078 132 927 447 995 941 146 626 078 132 927 447 995 941 146 626 numbers per second).

If someone could count very quickly, or could live for a very long period of time, they could count to one googol.

Answer 9

Assuming you had the following, the answer is yes:

1) Tons of time

2) Knowledge of all numbers between 1 and a googol

3) A very large attention span