MATH 109 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Googol, George Gamow, Tape Measure
Document Summary
Big numbers: 103= kilo, 106= mega, 109= giga, 1012=tera, a million seconds is about 12 days, a billion seconds is about 31 years, a trillion seconds is about 31,688 years. U. s. national debt is about 19 trillion dollars. That is 60 thousand dollars per citizen or 154 thousand dollars per taxpayer: ex. Radio talks about donating a penny per day and doubling the amount donated the next day for a year. Since 10 is roughly equal to 23. 3 we have 2364= (23. 3)110=10110 pennies: a number 10100 is called a googol by the physicist george gamow. Small numbers: 10-3=milli, 10-6=micro, 10-9=nano, 10-12=pica, 10-15=femto. Measurement error: in any measurement, there are two possible types of errors: change error: Even if we are very careful, if the same thing is measured several times, then each time we will obtain a different result. Each and every measurement is thrown off by chance error.
