Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:

> Does anybody know of a list anywhere that gives examples of really large
> numbers? I'm thinking of things like the number of grains of sand in a
> cubic meter, the brain cells in a human brain, or the number of
> subatomic particles in the visible universe. I for one have no idea even
> approximately "how big" these numbers are.


I'd recommend Project Euler ( projecteuler.net ).  It's a couple hundred math
problems for the not-particularly-mathematically-inclined whose answers are all
moderately large integers, e.g. the sum of the digits in 100!.  (That's
factorial, not emphasis.)  You create an account and can't see the answer...
until you have the answer.  Most require programming, but a good share require
nothing more than brute force.  Realizing how quickly problems become
intractable with brute force though will give you a real appreciation for how
quickly numbers grow.  Fun too.

 - Ricky

P.S.  Keep your distance from #160.  I lost at least a couple evenings to that
one.  Never figured it out.

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