(phone chirping) – Hi, it’s Doug. Have you ever seen a birthday cake with lots and lots of candles? Wow, that’s a lot of candles! This is my grandpa, Lou. In just two years, he’s going to turn 100 years old. That’s amazing! This year, instead of blowing out 98 candles, he decided to have just two candles to remind him of how many birthdays he has until he hits the big 100.
Someone named Aven has a question about numbers. Let’s give Aven a call now. (phone chirping) – Hi, Doug. – Hi, Aven. – I have a question for you. What’s the biggest number? – That’s a great question! When I was in kindergarten, my teacher, Mrs. Schlavene, would write a number on a piece of paper and tape it up on the wall. Each day of school, we would count a new number. One on the first day, two on the second, and so on. By the middle of the school year, those numbers were getting pretty high—97, 98, 99—and that’s when we hit the 100th day of school. Wow, 100! I remember thinking what a huge number that is. I had never counted 100 of anything before.
Now, maybe that’s because when we’re really young, it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of things in your life that are 100 of anything. You’re definitely still a long way from being 100 years old. And oh my gosh, can you imagine if you found $100? That would be amazing! But you know what? There are 100 of some things around you. Even if you found $1 and took it to the bank, that’s worth 100 pennies. So you could walk out of the bank with 100 pennies.
But as you might know, there are numbers even bigger than 100, like the number 1,000, which looks like this. That’s the number you get if you count to 100 ten times. There are definitely things in your life that are 1,000. For example, if you go to a really big movie theater, there might be 1,000 seats. Or if you’re more than three years old, congratulations! You’ve been alive for more than 1,000 days. It’s thought that most people speak about 1,000 words for every hour that they’re awake and talking, so you’ve probably said 1,000 words already today.
Okay, but there are still way bigger numbers than 1,000. Now, before I say anything more, I’m curious—what’s the biggest number you’ve heard of? Go ahead right now and tell someone near you.
Okay, you ready? Well, you might have said a few different things. Maybe you said a million, a billion, a trillion, or perhaps infinity. Ooh, infinity. Is infinity the biggest number? Well, no, it’s not. Now don’t get me wrong. Infinity is a word, but there’s something about this word that causes some confusion. You see, it’s not a number. It’s easier to understand if instead of using the word infinity, we use the word it comes from—infinite. Infinite means something with no end, something that has no stopping point.
Now, there aren’t a lot of things in our lives that have no end, but counting, or numbers, is one of those things. There’s no end to how many numbers there are. You can always keep counting. Think about it like this: if someone tries to challenge you by saying they can think of the biggest number ever, you can just challenge them right back by adding one. A million, a million and one. A billion, a billion and one. Each time you add one more, that’s a bigger number. So infinity isn’t the biggest number because there really is no such thing as the biggest number since you can always keep counting.
That said, just because we can keep counting forever doesn’t mean we have names for every number. We tend to only have names for numbers that we actually use. Million, billion, and trillion are all huge numbers. There aren’t a lot of things you bump into that are these numbers. When we’re talking about a million, you’re at a number that’s like the number of pizzas eaten every hour in the United States. That’s a lot of pizzas! A billion—that’s even bigger. That’s more like how many pizzas are eaten every year. If you want to get a sense of just how big a billion is, check out the episode we did called “How many people are in the world?”
Even so, these aren’t the biggest numbers we have a name for. The winner of the biggest number we have a name for, some would say, is the number googol. You heard me right—googol. Not the internet company, though they’re named after the number, just spelled differently. There’s really a number called googol. If it sounds like a little kid made up that name, that’s because they did. About 100 years ago, a mathematician decided to give a name to the number one with 100 zeros after it. He asked his nine-year-old nephew for advice, and the nephew said, “How about googol?” Amazingly, that name has stuck. It’s not a number that comes up very often, but it is officially considered the name of the number one with 100 zeros after it.
So in summary, there is no biggest number because numbers just keep going on forever. You could always keep counting. But we do have names for some really big numbers—not just million, billion, and trillion, but even numbers as big as googol. That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Aven, for asking it!
Now for the next episode, I reached into my question jar and picked out three questions sent in to me that I’m thinking about answering next. When this video is done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from “What’s it like to be a twin?”, “How do people predict the weather?”, or “Who invented the telephone?” So submit your vote when the video is over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious and see you next week!
Counting Collections: Gather a collection of small items like buttons, beads, or coins. Work with a partner to count them in groups of ten. Once you reach 100, see if you can count to 1,000 by adding more items. How many groups of ten do you need to make 1,000? Try to imagine how many items you would need to reach a million!
Number Hunt: Go on a number hunt around your home or school. Look for numbers in books, on clocks, or even on food packages. Write down the biggest number you can find. Share with your class or family where you found it and what it represents. Can you find a number bigger than 1,000?
Infinity Art: Draw a picture that represents the idea of infinity. Use your imagination to show something that has no end, like a spiral or a never-ending road. Share your artwork with a friend and explain how it represents the concept of infinity.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(phone chirping) – Hi, it’s Doug. What’s the most number of birthday candles you’ve ever seen on someone’s birthday cake? Wow, that’s a lot of candles! This is my grandpa, Lou. In just two years, he’s going to turn 100 years old. It’s amazing! This year, instead of blowing out 98 candles, he decided to have two candles to remind him of how many birthdays he has until he hits the big 100.
Someone named Aven has a question about numbers. Let’s give Aven a call now. (phone chirping) – Hi, Doug. – Hi, Aven. – I have a question for you. What’s the biggest number? – That’s a great question! When I was in kindergarten, my teacher, Mrs. Schlavene, would write a number on a piece of paper and tape it up on the wall. Each day of school, we would count a new number. One on the first day, two on the second, and so on. By the middle of the school year, those numbers were getting pretty high—97, 98, 99—and that’s when we hit the 100th day of school. Wow, 100! I remember thinking what a huge number that is. I had never counted 100 of anything before.
Now, maybe that’s because when we’re really young, it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of things in your life that are 100 of anything. You’re definitely still a long way from being 100 years old. And oh my gosh, can you imagine if you found $100? That would be amazing! But you know what? There are 100 of some things around you. Even if you found $1 and took it to the bank, that’s worth 100 pennies. So you could walk out of the bank with 100 pennies.
But as you might know, there are numbers even bigger than 100, like the number 1,000, which looks like this. That’s the number you get if you count to 100 ten times. There are definitely things in your life that are 1,000. For example, if you go to a really big movie theater, there might be 1,000 seats. Or if you’re more than three years old, congratulations! You’ve been alive for more than 1,000 days. It’s thought that most people speak about 1,000 words for every hour that they’re awake and talking, so you’ve probably said 1,000 words already today.
Okay, but there are still way bigger numbers than 1,000. Now, before I say anything more, I’m curious—what’s the biggest number you’ve heard of? Go ahead right now and tell someone near you.
Okay, you ready? Well, you might have said a few different things. Maybe you said a million, a billion, a trillion, or perhaps infinity. Ooh, infinity. Is infinity the biggest number? Well, no, it’s not. Now don’t get me wrong. Infinity is a word, but there’s something about this word that causes some confusion. You see, it’s not a number. It’s easier to understand if instead of using the word infinity, we use the word it comes from—infinite. Infinite means something with no end, something that has no stopping point.
Now, there aren’t a lot of things in our lives that have no end, but counting, or numbers, is one of those things. There’s no end to how many numbers there are. You can always keep counting. Think about it like this: if someone tries to challenge you by saying they can think of the biggest number ever, you can just challenge them right back by adding one. A million, a million and one. A billion, a billion and one. Each time you add one more, that’s a bigger number. So infinity isn’t the biggest number because there really is no such thing as the biggest number since you can always keep counting.
That said, just because we can keep counting forever doesn’t mean we have names for every number. We tend to only have names for numbers that we actually use. Million, billion, and trillion are all huge numbers. There aren’t a lot of things you bump into that are these numbers. When we’re talking about a million, you’re at a number that’s like the number of pizzas eaten every hour in the United States. That’s a lot of pizzas! A billion—that’s even bigger. That’s more like how many pizzas are eaten every year. If you want to get a sense of just how big a billion is, check out the episode we did called “How many people are in the world?”
Even so, these aren’t the biggest numbers we have a name for. The winner of the biggest number we have a name for, some would say, is the number googol. You heard me right—googol. Not the internet company, though they’re named after the number, just spelled differently. There’s really a number called googol. If it sounds like a little kid made up that name, that’s because they did. About 100 years ago, a mathematician decided to give a name to the number one with 100 zeros after it. He asked his nine-year-old nephew for advice, and the nephew said, “How about googol?” Amazingly, that name has stuck. It’s not a number that comes up very often, but it is officially considered the name of the number one with 100 zeros after it.
So in summary, there is no biggest number because numbers just keep going on forever. You could always keep counting. But we do have names for some really big numbers—not just million, billion, and trillion, but even numbers as big as googol. That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Aven, for asking it!
Now for the next episode, I reached into my question jar and picked out three questions sent in to me that I’m thinking about answering next. When this video is done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from “What’s it like to be a twin?”, “How do people predict the weather?”, or “Who invented the telephone?” So submit your vote when the video is over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious and see you next week!
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Let me know if you need any further modifications!
