Numbers with more than 100 zeros

Question

what is the -illion for 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Answer 1

I'm not even going to count

We don't use -illion for numbers like this (except as a joke) We use "million, billion and trillion" for some very large amounts (usually large amounts of money). Higher terms like "quadrillion" etc are very rare.

For numbers that are too large to write never occur in normal converstation. In a scientific or mathematical context they might occur, in which case you should use standard index form 1×10¹⁰⁰ for one followed by 100 zeros.

There is the joke word "googol" for this. It is a joke word and nothing more.

Okay, I did count, and there are 860 zeros = 2+ (285×3 + 3)

So just for the joke, that is one-hundred-ducentioctogintaquintillion

Answer 2

I do not know whether mathematicians or scientists use the word "googol" in serious work - James says not. But as you asked specifically about "numbers with more than 100 zeros", and as the term "googol" is widely cited on apparently serious sites (e.g. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Googol.html ; https://www.clear.rice.edu/comp280/05spring/Lectures/lect-extra-googol.shtml ), I offer the following observation.

If 1 followed by 100 zeros is a googol, it follows that:

• 1 followed by 101 zeros is ten googol.
• 1 followed by 102 zeros is a hundred googol.
• 1 followed by 103 zeros is a thousand googol.
• 1 followed by 104 zeros is ten thousand googol.
• 105 - a hundred thousand googol.
• 106 - a million googol.
• 107 - ten million googol.
• 108 - a hundred million googol.
• 109 - a thousand million googol or a billion googol.

And so on.

Answer 3

No one would use -illion for numbers of such magnitude. Anything in the physical realm is covered handily by scientific notation. The number in your post is 1*10^860, or 1e860.