What is 20 zeros? The largest number in the world

Countless different numbers surround us every day. Surely many people have at least once wondered what number is considered the largest. You can simply say to a child that this is a million, but adults understand perfectly well that other numbers follow a million. For example, all you have to do is add one to a number each time, and it will become larger and larger - this happens ad infinitum. But if you look at the numbers that have names, you can find out what the largest number in the world is called.

The appearance of number names: what methods are used?

Today there are 2 systems according to which names are given to numbers - American and English. The first is quite simple, and the second is the most common throughout the world. The American one allows you to give names to large numbers as follows: first, the ordinal number in Latin is indicated, and then the suffix “million” is added (the exception here is million, meaning a thousand). This system is used by Americans, French, Canadians, and it is also used in our country.

English is widely used in England and Spain. According to it, numbers are named as follows: the numeral in Latin is “plus” with the suffix “illion”, and the next (a thousand times larger) number is “plus” “billion”. For example, the trillion comes first, the trillion comes after it, the quadrillion comes after the quadrillion, etc.

Thus, the same number in different systems can mean different things; for example, an American billion in the English system is called a billion.

Extra-system numbers

In addition to the numbers that are written by known systems(given above), there are also non-systemic ones. They have their own names, which do not include Latin prefixes.

You can start considering them with a number called a myriad. It is defined as one hundred hundreds (10000). But according to its intended purpose, this word is not used, but is used as an indication of an innumerable multitude. Even Dahl's dictionary will kindly provide a definition of such a number.

Next after the myriad is a googol, denoting 10 to the power of 100. This name was first used in 1938 by the American mathematician E. Kasner, who noted that this name was invented by his nephew.

Google got its name in honor of googol ( search system). Then 1 with a googol of zeros (1010100) represents a googolplex - Kasner also came up with this name.

Even larger than the googolplex is the Skuse number (e to the power of e to the power of e79), proposed by Skuse in his proof of the Rimmann conjecture about prime numbers (1933). There is another Skuse number, but it is used when the Rimmann hypothesis is not valid. Which one is greater is quite difficult to say, especially when it comes to large degrees. However, this number, despite its “hugeness,” cannot be considered the very best of all those that have their own names.

And the leader among the most large numbers in the world is the Graham number (G64). It was used for the first time to carry out proofs in the field of mathematical science (1977).

When we're talking about about such a number, you need to know that you cannot do without a special 64-level system created by Knuth - the reason for this is the connection of the number G with bichromatic hypercubes. Knuth invented the superdegree, and in order to make it convenient to record it, he proposed the use of up arrows. So we found out what the largest number in the world is called. It is worth noting that this G number made it onto the pages famous Book records.

This is a tablet for learning numbers from 1 to 100. The book is suitable for children over 4 years old.
Those who are familiar with Montesori training have probably already seen such a sign. It has many applications and now we will get to know them.
The child must have excellent knowledge of numbers up to 10 before starting to work with the table, since counting up to 10 is the basis for teaching numbers up to 100 and above.
With the help of this table, the child will learn the names of numbers up to 100; count to 100; sequence of numbers. You can also practice counting by 2, 3, 5, etc.

The table can be copied here


It consists of two parts (two-sided). On one side of the sheet we copy a table with numbers up to 100, and on the other side we copy empty cells where we can practice. Laminate the table so that the child can write on it with markers and wipe it off easily.

How to use the table

1. The table can be used to study numbers from 1 to 100.
Starting from 1 and counting to 100. Initially the parent/teacher shows how it is done.
It is important that the child notices the principle by which numbers are repeated.

2. Mark one number on the laminated chart. The child must say the next 3-4 numbers.


3. Mark some numbers. Ask your child to say their names.
The second version of the exercise is for the parent to name arbitrary numbers, and the child finds and marks them.


4. Count in 5.
The child counts 1,2,3,4,5 and marks the last (fifth) number.
Continues counting 1,2,3,4,5 and marks last number until it reaches 100. Then he lists the marked numbers.
Similarly, one learns to count in 2, 3, etc.


5. If you copy the number template again and cut it, you can make cards. They can be placed in the table as you will see in the following lines
IN in this case the table is copied on blue cardboard so that it can be easily distinguished from white background table.

6. Cards can be placed on the table and counted - name the number by placing its card. This helps the child learn all the numbers. This way he will exercise.
Before this, it is important that the parent divides the cards into 10s (from 1 to 10; from 11 to 20; from 21 to 30, etc.). The child takes a card, puts it down and says the number.

Have you ever thought how many zeros there are in one million? This is a pretty simple question. What about a billion or a trillion? One followed by nine zeros (1000000000) - what is the name of the number?

A short list of numbers and their quantitative designation

  • Ten (1 zero).
  • One hundred (2 zeros).
  • One thousand (3 zeros).
  • Ten thousand (4 zeros).
  • One hundred thousand (5 zeros).
  • Million (6 zeros).
  • Billion (9 zeros).
  • Trillion (12 zeros).
  • Quadrillion (15 zeros).
  • Quintilion (18 zeros).
  • Sextillion (21 zeros).
  • Septillion (24 zeros).
  • Octalion (27 zeros).
  • Nonalion (30 zeros).
  • Decalion (33 zeros).

Grouping of zeros

1000000000 - what is the name of a number that has 9 zeros? This is a billion. For convenience, large numbers are usually grouped into sets of three, separated from each other by a space or punctuation marks such as a comma or period.

This is done to make the quantitative value easier to read and understand. For example, what is the name of the number 1000000000? In this form, it’s worth straining a little and doing the math. And if you write 1,000,000,000, then the task immediately becomes visually easier, since you need to count not zeros, but triples of zeros.

Numbers with a lot of zeros

The most popular are million and billion (1000000000). What is the name of a number that has 100 zeros? This is a Googol number, so called by Milton Sirotta. This is a wildly huge amount. Do you think this number is large? Then what about a googolplex, a one followed by a googol of zeros? This figure is so large that it is difficult to come up with a meaning for it. In fact, there is no need for such giants, except to count the number of atoms in the infinite Universe.

Is 1 billion a lot?

There are two measurement scales - short and long. Around the world in science and finance, 1 billion is 1,000 million. This is on a short scale. According to it, this is a number with 9 zeros.

There is also a long scale which is used in some European countries, including in France, and was previously used in the UK (until 1971), where a billion was 1 million millions, that is, one followed by 12 zeros. This gradation is also called the long-term scale. The short scale is now predominant in financial and scientific matters.

Some European languages, such as Swedish, Danish, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, German, use billion (or billion) in this system. In Russian, a number with 9 zeros is also described for the short scale of a thousand million, and a trillion is a million million. This avoids unnecessary confusion.

Conversational options

In Russian colloquial speech after the events of 1917 - the Great October Revolution - and the period of hyperinflation in the early 1920s. 1 billion rubles was called “limard”. And in the dashing 1990s, a new slang expression “watermelon” appeared for a billion; a million were called “lemon.”

The word "billion" is now used in international level. This natural number, which is depicted in decimal system, like 10 9 (one and 9 zeros). There is also another name - billion, which is not used in Russia and the CIS countries.

Billion = billion?

A word such as billion is used to designate a billion only in those states in which the “short scale” is adopted as a basis. These are countries like Russian Federation, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, USA, Canada, Greece and Türkiye. In other countries, the concept of a billion means the number 10 12, that is, one followed by 12 zeros. In countries with a “short scale”, including Russia, this figure corresponds to 1 trillion.

Such confusion appeared in France at a time when the formation of such a science as algebra was taking place. Initially, a billion had 12 zeros. However, everything changed after the appearance of the main manual on arithmetic (author Tranchan) in 1558), where a billion is already a number with 9 zeros (a thousand millions).

For several subsequent centuries, these two concepts were used on an equal basis with each other. In the mid-20th century, namely in 1948, France switched to a long scale numerical naming system. In this regard, the short scale, once borrowed from the French, is still different from the one they use today.

Historically, the United Kingdom used the long-term billion, but since 1974 official UK statistics have used the short-term scale. Since the 1950s, the short-term scale has been increasingly used in the fields of technical writing and journalism, although the long-term scale still persists.

Back in the fourth grade, I was interested in the question: “What are numbers greater than a billion called? And why?” Since then, I have been looking for all the information on this issue for a long time and collecting it bit by bit. But with the advent of Internet access, searching has accelerated significantly. Now I present all the information I found so that others can answer the question: “What are large and very large numbers called?”

A little history

Southern and eastern Slavic peoples Alphabetical numbering was used to record numbers. Moreover, for the Russians, not all letters played the role of numbers, but only those that are in the Greek alphabet. A special “title” icon was placed above the letter indicating the number. At the same time, the numerical values ​​of the letters increased in the same order as the letters in the Greek alphabet (the order of the letters of the Slavic alphabet was slightly different).

In Russia, Slavic numbering was preserved until the end of the 17th century. Under Peter I, the so-called “Arabic numbering” prevailed, which we still use today.

There were also changes in the names of numbers. For example, until the 15th century, the number "twenty" was written as "two tens" (two tens), but was then shortened for faster pronunciation. Until the 15th century, the number "forty" was denoted by the word "fourty", and in the 15th-16th centuries this word was replaced by the word "forty", which originally meant a bag in which 40 squirrel or sable skins were placed. There are two options about the origin of the word “thousand”: from the old name “thick hundred” or from a modification Latin word centum - "one hundred".

The name “million” first appeared in Italy in 1500 and was formed by adding an augmentative suffix to the number “mille” - a thousand (i.e., it meant “big thousand”), it penetrated into the Russian language later, and before that the same meaning in in Russian it was designated by the number "leodr". The word “billion” came into use only since the Franco-Prussian War (1871), when the French had to pay Germany an indemnity of 5,000,000,000 francs. Like "million," the word "billion" comes from the root "thousand" with the addition of an Italian magnifying suffix. In Germany and America for some time the word “billion” meant the number 100,000,000; This explains that the word billionaire was used in America before any rich person had $1,000,000,000. In the ancient (18th century) “Arithmetic” of Magnitsky, a table of the names of numbers is given, brought to the “quadrillion” (10^24, according to the system through 6 digits). Perelman Ya.I. in the book "Entertaining Arithmetic" the names of large numbers of that time are given, slightly different from today: septillion (10^42), octalion (10^48), nonalion (10^54), decalion (10^60), endecalion (10^ 66), dodecalion (10^72) and it is written that “there are no further names.”

Principles for constructing names and a list of large numbers
All names of large numbers are constructed quite in a simple way: the Latin ordinal number comes at the beginning, and the suffix -million is added to it at the end. An exception is the name "million" which is the name of the number thousand (mille) and the augmentative suffix -million. There are two main types of names for large numbers in the world:
system 3x+3 (where x is a Latin ordinal number) - this system is used in Russia, France, USA, Canada, Italy, Turkey, Brazil, Greece
and the 6x system (where x is a Latin ordinal number) - this system is most common in the world (for example: Spain, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark, Finland). In it, the missing intermediate 6x+3 end with the suffix -billion (from it we borrowed billion, which is also called billion).

Below is a general list of numbers used in Russia:

Number Name Latin numeral Magnifying attachment SI Diminishing prefix SI Practical significance
10 1 ten deca- deci- Number of fingers on 2 hands
10 2 one hundred hecto- centi- About half the number of all states on Earth
10 3 thousand kilo- Milli- Approximate number of days in 3 years
10 6 million unus (I) mega- micro- 5 times the number of drops in a 10 liter bucket of water
10 9 billion (billion) duo (II) giga- nano- Estimated Population of India
10 12 trillion tres (III) tera- pico- 1/13 internal gross product Russia in rubles for 2003
10 15 quadrillion quattor (IV) peta- femto- 1/30 of the length of a parsec in meters
10 18 quintillion quinque (V) exa- atto- 1/18th of the number of grains from the legendary award to the inventor of chess
10 21 sextillion sex (VI) zetta- ceto- 1/6 of the mass of planet Earth in tons
10 24 septillion septem (VII) yotta- yocto- Number of molecules in 37.2 liters of air
10 27 octillion octo (VIII) nah- sieve- Half of Jupiter's mass in kilograms
10 30 quintillion novem (IX) dea- threado- 1/5 of all microorganisms on the planet
10 33 decillion decem (X) una- revolution Half the mass of the Sun in grams

The pronunciation of the numbers that follow often differs.
Number Name Latin numeral Practical significance
10 36 andecillion undecim (XI)
10 39 duodecillion duodecim (XII)
10 42 thredecillion tredecim (XIII) 1/100 of the number of air molecules on Earth
10 45 quattordecillion quattuordecim (XIV)
10 48 quindecillion quindecim (XV)
10 51 sexdecillion sedecim (XVI)
10 54 septemdecillion septendecim (XVII)
10 57 octodecillion So many elementary particles in the sun
10 60 novemdecillion
10 63 vigintillion viginti (XX)
10 66 anvigintillion unus et viginti (XXI)
10 69 duovigintillion duo et viginti (XXII)
10 72 trevigintillion tres et viginti (XXIII)
10 75 quattorvigintillion
10 78 quinvigintillion
10 81 sexvigintillion So many elementary particles in the universe
10 84 septemvigintillion
10 87 octovigintillion
10 90 novemvigintillion
10 93 trigintillion triginta (XXX)
10 96 antigintillion
    ...
  • 10,100 - googol (the number was invented by the 9-year-old nephew of the American mathematician Edward Kasner)


  • 10 123 - quadragintillion (quadraginta, XL)

  • 10 153 - quinquagintillion (quinquaginta, L)

  • 10 183 - sexagintillion (sexaginta, LX)

  • 10,213 - septuagintillion (septuaginta, LXX)

  • 10,243 - octogintillion (octoginta, LXXX)

  • 10,273 - nonagintillion (nonaginta, XC)

  • 10 303 - centillion (Centum, C)

Further names can be obtained either directly or in reverse order Latin numerals (which is correct is not known):

  • 10 306 - ancentillion or centunillion

  • 10 309 - duocentillion or centullion

  • 10 312 - trecentillion or centtrillion

  • 10 315 - quattorcentillion or centquadrillion

  • 10 402 - tretrigyntacentillion or centretrigyntillion

I believe that the second spelling option would be the most correct, since it is more consistent with the construction of numerals in Latin and allows you to avoid ambiguities (for example, in the number trcentillion, which according to the first spelling is both 10,903 and 10,312).
The numbers follow:
Some literary references:

  1. Perelman Ya.I. "Fun arithmetic." - M.: Triada-Litera, 1994, pp. 134-140

  2. Vygodsky M.Ya. "Handbook of Elementary Mathematics". - St. Petersburg, 1994, pp. 64-65

  3. "Encyclopedia of Knowledge". - comp. IN AND. Korotkevich. - St. Petersburg: Sova, 2006, p. 257

  4. “Interesting about physics and mathematics.” - Quantum Library. issue 50. - M.: Nauka, 1988, p. 50

Naming systems for large numbers

There are two systems for naming numbers - American and European (English).


In the American system, all names of large numbers are constructed like this: at the beginning there is a Latin ordinal number, and at the end the suffix “million” is added to it. An exception is the name "million", which is the name of the number thousand (Latin mille) and the magnifying suffix "illion". This is how numbers are obtained - trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, etc. The American system is used in the USA, Canada, France and Russia. The number of zeros in a number written according to the American system is determined by the formula 3 x + 3 (where x is a Latin numeral).


The European (English) naming system is the most common in the world. It is used, for example, in Great Britain and Spain, as well as in most former English and Spanish colonies. The names of numbers in this system are constructed as follows: the suffix “million” is added to the Latin numeral, the name of the next number (1,000 times larger) is formed from the same Latin numeral, but with the suffix “billion”. That is, after a trillion in this system there is a trillion, and only then a quadrillion, followed by a quadrillion, etc. The number of zeros in a number written according to the European system and ending with the suffix “million” is determined by the formula 6 x + 3 (where x is a Latin numeral) and by the formula 6 x + 6 for numbers ending in “billion”. In some countries that use the American system, for example, in Russia, Turkey, Italy, the word “billion” is used instead of the word “billion”.


Both systems originate from France. French physicist and mathematician Nicolas Chuquet coined the words "billion" and "trillion" and used them to represent the numbers 10 12 and 10 18 respectively, which served as the basis for the European system.


But some French mathematicians in the 17th century used the words "billion" and "trillion" for the numbers 10 9 and 10 12, respectively. This naming system took hold in France and America, and became known as American, while the original Choquet system continued to be used in Great Britain and Germany. France returned to the Choquet system (i.e. European) in 1948.


IN last years The American system is replacing the European one, partially in Great Britain and, so far, little noticeably in other European countries. This is mainly due to the fact that Americans insist in financial transactions that $1,000,000,000 should be called a billion dollars. In 1974, Prime Minister Harold Wilson's government announced that the word billion would be 10 9 rather than 10 12 in UK official records and statistics.


Number Titles Prefixes in SI (+/-) Notes
. Zillion from English zillionGeneral name for very large numbers. This term does not have a strict mathematical definition. In 1996, J.H. Conway and R.K. Guy, in their book The Book of Numbers, defined the nth power of zillion as 10 3n + 3 for American system(million - 10 6, billion - 10 9, trillion - 10 12, ...) and as 10 6n for the European system (million - 10 6, billion - 10 12, trillion - 10 18, ....)
10 3 Thousand kilo and milliAlso denoted by the Roman numeral M (from Latin mille).
10 6 Million mega and microOften used in Russian as a metaphor to denote a very large number (quantity) of something.
10 9 Billion, billion(French billion)giga and nanoBillion - 10 9 (in the American system), 10 12 (in the European system). The word was coined by the French physicist and mathematician Nicolas Choquet to denote the number 10 12 (million million - billion). In some countries using Amer. system, instead of the word “billion” the word “billion” is used, borrowed from European. systems.
10 12 Trillion tera and picoIn some countries, the number 10 18 is called a trillion.
10 15 Quadrillion peta and femtoIn some countries, the number 10 24 is called a quadrillion.
10 18 Quintillion . .
10 21 Sextillion zetta and cepto, or zeptoIn some countries, the number 1036 is called a sextillion.
10 24 Septillion yotta and yoktoIn some countries, the number 1042 is called a septillion.
10 27 Octillion Nope and sieveIn some countries, the number 1048 is called an octillion.
10 30 Quintillion dea and tredoIn some countries, the number 10 54 is called a nonillion.
10 33 Decillion Una and RevoIn some countries, the number 10 60 is called a decillion.

12 - Dozen(from French douzaine or Italian dozzina, which in turn came from Latin duodecim.)
A measure of piece counting of homogeneous objects. Widely used before the introduction metric system. For example, a dozen scarves, a dozen forks. 12 dozen make a gross. The word “dozen” was mentioned for the first time in Russian in 1720. It was originally used by sailors.


13 - Baker's dozen

The number is considered unlucky. Many Western hotels do not have rooms numbered 13, and office buildings do not have 13 floors. There are no seats with this number in opera houses in Italy. On almost all ships, after the 12th cabin there is the 14th.


144 - Gross- “big dozen” (from German Gro? - big)

A counting unit equal to 12 dozen. It was usually used when counting small haberdashery and stationery items - pencils, buttons, writing pens, etc. A dozen gross makes a mass.


1728 - Weight

Mass (obsolete) - a measure equal to a dozen gross, i.e. 144 * 12 = 1728 pieces. Widely used before the introduction of the metric system.


666 or 616 - Number of the beast

A special number mentioned in the Bible (Revelation 13:18, 14:2). It is assumed that in connection with the assignment of a numerical value to the letters of ancient alphabets, this number can mean any name or concept, the sum of the numerical values ​​of the letters of which is 666. Such words could be: "Lateinos" (meaning in Greek everything Latin; suggested by Jerome ), "Nero Caesar", "Bonaparte" and even "Martin Luther". In some manuscripts the number of the beast is read as 616.


10 4 or 10 6 - Myriad - "innumerable multitude"

Myriad - the word is outdated and practically not used, but the word "myriads" - (astronomer) is widely used, which means an uncountable, uncountable multitude of something.


Myriad was the largest number for which the ancient Greeks had a name. However, in his work "Psammit" ("Calculus of grains of sand"), Archimedes showed how to systematically construct and name arbitrarily large numbers. Archimedes called all the numbers from 1 to the myriad (10,000) the first numbers, he called the myriad of myriads (10 8) the unit of second numbers (dimyriad), he called the myriad of myriads of second numbers (10 16) the unit of third numbers (trimyriad), etc. .

10 000 - dark
100 000 - legion
1 000 000 - Leodr
10 000 000 - raven or corvid
100 000 000 - deck

The ancient Slavs also loved large numbers and were able to count to a billion. Moreover, they called such an account a “small account.” In some manuscripts, the authors also considered " great score", reaching the number 10 50. About numbers greater than 10 50 it was said: “And more than this cannot be understood by the human mind.” Names used in the “small count” were transferred to the “great count”, but with a different meaning. Thus, darkness meant no longer 10,000, but a million, legion - the darkness of those (a million millions); leodr - legion of legions - 10 24, then it said - ten leodres, one hundred leodres, ..., and, finally, one hundred thousand those legion leodres - 10 47; leodr leodrov -10 48 was called a raven and, finally, a deck -10 49.


10 140 - Asankhey I (from Chinese asentsi - innumerable)

Mentioned in the famous Buddhist treatise Jaina Sutra, dating back to 100 BC. It is believed that this number is equal to the number of cosmic cycles required to achieve nirvana.


Google(from English googol) - 10 100 , that is, one followed by one hundred zeros.

The “googol” was first written about in 1938 in the article “New Names in Mathematics” in the January issue of the journal Scripta Mathematica by the American mathematician Edward Kasner. According to him, it was his nine-year-old nephew Milton Sirotta who suggested calling the large number a “googol”. This number became generally known thanks to the search engine named after it. Google. Note that " Google" - This trademark , A googol - number.


Googolplex(English googolplex) 10 10 100 - 10 to the power of googol.

The number was also invented by Kasner and his nephew and means one with a googol of zeros, that is, 10 to the power of a googol. This is how Kasner himself describes this “discovery”:

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 zeros 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.

Mathematics and the Imagination (1940) by Kasner and James R. Newman.


Skewes number(Skewes` number) - Sk 1 e e e 79 - means e to the power of e to the power of e to the power of 79.

It was proposed by J. Skewes in 1933 (Skewes. J. London Math. Soc. 8, 277-283, 1933.) when proving the Riemann hypothesis concerning prime numbers. Later, Riele (te Riele, H. J. J. "On the Sign of the Difference П(x)-Li(x)." Math. Comput. 48, 323-328, 1987) reduced the Skuse number to e e 27/4, which is approximately equal to 8.185 10 370 .


Second Skewes number- Sk 2

It was introduced by J. Skuse in the same article to denote the number up to which the Riemann hypothesis does not hold. Sk 2 is equal to 10 10 10 10 3 .

As you understand, the more degrees there are, the more difficult it is to understand which number is greater. For example, looking at Skewes numbers, without special calculations, it is almost impossible to understand which of these two numbers is larger. Thus, for super-large numbers it becomes inconvenient to use powers. Moreover, you can come up with such numbers (and they have already been invented) when the degrees of degrees simply do not fit on the page. Yes, that's on the page! They won’t fit even into a book the size of the entire Universe!


In this case, the question arises of how to write them down. The problem, as you understand, is solvable, and mathematicians have developed several principles for writing such numbers. True, every mathematician who wondered about this problem came up with his own way of writing, which led to the existence of several, unrelated to each other, methods for writing numbers - these are the notations of Knuth, Conway, Steinhouse, etc.


Hugo Stenhouse notation(H. Steinhaus. Mathematical Snapshots, 3rd edn. 1983) is quite simple. Steinhaus (German: Steihaus) proposed writing large numbers inside geometric figures - triangle, square and circle.


Steinhouse came up with super-large numbers and called the number 2 in a circle - Mega, 3 in a circle - Medzone, and the number 10 in a circle is Megiston.

Mathematician Leo Moser modified Stenhouse's notation, which was limited by the fact that if it was necessary to write numbers much larger than megiston, difficulties and inconveniences arose, since it was necessary to draw many circles one inside the other. Moser suggested that after the squares, draw not circles, but pentagons, then hexagons, and so on. He also proposed a formal notation for these polygons so that numbers could be written without drawing complex pictures. Moser notation looks like this:

  • "n triangle" = nn = n.
  • "n squared" = n = "n in n triangles" = nn.
  • "n in a pentagon" = n = "n in n squares" = nn.
  • n = "n in n k-gons" = n[k]n.

In Moser's notation, Steinhouse's mega is written as 2, and megiston as 10. Leo Moser proposed calling a polygon with the number of sides equal to mega - megagon. He also proposed the number “2 in Megagon”, that is, 2. This number became known as Moser number(Moser`s number) or just like Moser. But the Moser number is not the largest number.


The largest number ever used in a mathematical proof is limit value, known as Graham number(Graham's number), first used in 1977 in the proof of one estimate in Ramsey's theory. It is related to bichromatic hypercubes and cannot be expressed without a special 64-level system of special mathematical symbols introduced by D. Knuth in 1976.

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