# How big is 10 to the 20th?

Here’s a great illustration from George Gamow’s classic book One Two Three… Infinity which shows two things: just how big $10^{20}$ really is, when thought of as a scaling factor; and also the power of a good illustration to drive home a point about math or science. The picture shows a normal-sized astronomer observing the Milky Way galaxy when shrunk down by a factor of $10^{20}$

That’s a big number, folks.

Gamow’s book is one of several on my summer reading list, and there’s a reason it’s a classic. In particular, it’s chock full of cool illustrations like this that convey more information about a science concept than an hour’s worth of lecturing.

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2 Comments

Filed under Geekhood, Math, Science

### 2 responses to “How big is 10 to the 20th?”

1. Jami

Looks like a good one! I’ll have to pick this one up. Reminds me of Carl Sagan’s description of the history of the universe as a big calendar, where humans have only been around for a couple hours on December 31st. The Universe specials on the History channel used this same metaphor.

I still havent found any math “story book” better than Flatland. I still rave about that one to people. 🙂 If only they could teach more things like this for the simple parts of math for younger students. Maybe people wouldnt get so scared… Or maybe I’m just a dork for thinking this stuff is cool!