Definition: GooSecond
A GooSecond is one googillionth of a second
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Several years ago (2005), I googled the word “googillion” and to my surprise it only returned three hits. So I thought I would have some fun and see what would happen if I promoted the word “googillion” beginning with writing its definition. At that time the definition was:
“A googillion is an astronomer’s “largest number possible” synonym for everyday real-world objects that are unknown and unknowable. Example, from string theory, how many strings are there in the universe? The answer is a googillion. Although the real answer is a specific number at any given point in time, the number is both an unknown and unknowable largest number.”
And I proceeded to submit it to the online dictionaries, Wikipedia, and other media like Wired magazine. Today there are thousands of google search hits for the word “googillion” coming from many contributors and originators.
Obviously arbitrary, the number could just as easily by all the sub atomic particles, and so on. A googillionplex would be a googillion raised to the power of one googillion. So, as it turns out, a googillion can be seen as a really large number or a really small number.
Moving from the cosmological scale to the quantum world scale, we would have a goometer as one googillionth of a meter and a goosecond as one googillionth of a second. Which produces such child-like questions as … What would I see through a goometric microscope? Yes I know, it’s silly and what about planck length … it’s a child’s question. And, does anything in the universe happen in less than a goosecond?
Lastly, what would I see if looking at a neutrino through a goometric microscope frozen in a goosecond of time? The answer certainly should be nothing, but then a goometer is a really really long distance and a goosecond is a really really long period of time.
Goo, the new Nano.
A googillion is actually a 1, followed by a googillion zeroes
Yes, exactly Kevin. And a googillion zeros is defined as the number of 10-point type zeros that would stretch across our universe … which is the new definition. Thanks for the comment.
I have always been somewhat bothered by the definition of “googol” – a 1 followed by 100 zeros. While handy, there’s a small problem. After the number 100, we only create a new name when there’s a new group of three zeros following it. For example:
1000 – thousand
1000,000 – million
1,000,000 – (US) billion
The problem is that googol is a “10″ followed by 33 groups of 3 zeros. If any name change was scheduled, it should have occurred when it became a 1 followed by 99 zeros.
So, while I was in the bathroom it occurred to be that the “big numbers” also end in “illion” – so this is why I Googled “googillion.” Here is my proposed definition of googillion:
A “1″ followed by 100 groups of 3 zeros.
The definition you’re proposing might as well become the technical definition of “zillion.”
Yes, of course you are correct-o in your statement. A “1 followed by 100 groups of 3 zeros” seems like a cleaner solution, but then you have a “1,000 groups of 3 zeros” needing a new name. A googillion is in fact a synonym for a zillion. It’s just that a googillion has a theorically specific definition, and a zillion can always be a higher number because it does not have any quantified definition. Otherwise said, a googillion is positioned as a specific zillion-scale number.
Thanks for the Comment Jim.