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Being a math phobe I decided to begin an exploration within the daunting realm of mathematics. I began with a book titled Mathematical Mysteries, however, I got as far as the chapter on large numbers in my reading and became fascinated by the simple idea of counting and the amazing powers of 10. I found myself counting everything . The idea that I had a certain amount of heart beats in my lifetime began to weigh on my mind.. and I began counting them too.. hour after hour.I thought of my heart as a counting machine, keeping track of each moment, day and night, awake and asleep. . how many would it ultimately chalk up? Millions and millions .. surely.
1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=
I moved beyond this process and continued to think about these large numbers… I guess I became a bit obsessed and decided to create my own big number. I approached the idea initially by first considering the space in which my number would fit and then calculated how many digits would fit inside this space. The number is not as big as say the one R. Penrose describes which could not be written out even if one were to write each digit onto every subatomic particle that exists in the universe … Oh no it is much much smaller than that type of a big league number…but here I get ahead of myself..
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"… Suppose that you were to randomly choose a number from all the infinity of numbers. Let's assume that to write it down on a piece of paper, the paper would fill the entire universe. Although this number is large by our standards, compared to all the numbers that exist it is still exceedingly small. In fact it is so small that the chances of choosing it are almost non existent. A randomly chosen number would be much larger. No matter what number we come up with as an example, we see that there exists only a finite amount of numbers that are smaller and an infinity of numbers that are bigger."
*Mathematical Mysteries by Calvin Clawson.
So, you might say what does it all mean.. this big
number..????????????????????????????????
If this boggles the mind and you find yourself beginning to yawn, I urge you to press on. I decided to create my own big number. My number is rather small in the
infinity of numbers that could exist in the universes, but compared to our everyday realm of numbers it is quite huge.
If written out it would cover 800 square feet(36zeros per sq.inch) or it could fill 32 volumes(over 7,000 pages with 576 zeroes per page.)
It is a one followed by over 4 million zeroes.
6
(4.1472x10 )
10
Perhaps it represents the total amount of a multitude of WHO KNOWS WHAT?
It is the sum at the bottom of a grocery list so to speak. It's what everything will add up to when we decide to count all that exists..all that we can see around us.. in reality.. the imagination, the universes. When we make that list will the number represent the total? ?
What are your ideas concerning the nature of such a list?
If every person on the planet added to the list would it add up to the number?
What might be on such a list?
The human breath contains about one milllion billion billion atoms.. how many breaths do you take in a lifetime?
There are 100 times more cells in one human body than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy…
Perhaps we should add all the ticks of all the clocks and all the musical notes ever played..
How many snowflakes, raindrops, seeds, leaves, flower petals, have fallen to the ground, or mountaintops.?
What are the images that pass before your eyes in a day, week, month ...
Perhaps whenever something is added to the list… it then ceases to exist…
Perhaps this is the cause of past mass extinctions!!
Or the disappearance of the atmosphere on Mars!!
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I am putting this idea out into the world to see if anyone is interested in discussing it and adding to the list.
The project will only evolve and take form if people are engaged by it and add their ideas.
Tell me what you think is on the list of everything.
another of Lyn's pages
voiceinthecircle.org
emails welcome at thelistofeverything@yahoo.com
Who is Lynda Fatalo ? © 2008
Science discoveries, links, blogs
THE UNIVERSE OF THE VERY SMALL & THE DISCOVERY OF THE OLDEST KNOWN OBJECT IN THE UNIVERSE
THE UNIVERSE OF THE VERY LARGE
Environmental Info - Global Warming
Visit David Harris Science & Literature Blog
SYMMETRY MAGAZINE !
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