10¹⁰⁰ and Beyond

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of one hundred years, teach the people. Confucius

Ten may be the most fascinating number. Think, for example, about the number of stars in the observable cosmos! Their number is astounding: trillions of stars within hundreds of billions of galaxies.

Describing these monumental numbers is made simpler by using the power of ten: 10⁹ for a billion, 10¹² for a trillion, 10¹⁵ for a quadrillion, 10¹⁸ for a quintillion, 10²¹ for a sextillion, and so on until the mind-boggling 10¹⁰⁰ for a googol, and beyond.

It is certainly interesting to consider that the number googol is recognised to be greater than the number of atoms in the observable universe, which has been estimated to be only around 10⁷⁸. Thus, it would take ten sextillion (10²²) universes to reach a googol atoms.

This is not even close to corroborating or describing the ramifications of a multiverse, but it demonstrates the power of ten. Nevertheless, 10⁷⁸ does not consider dark matter and dark energy and all the implications that they would surely demand.

Top Ten Reasons for Respecting the Number 10:

1. Ten fingers (and ten toes)
2. Decimal numeral system
3. The word “decimate” stems from the number 10, but the correct meaning of the verb to “decimate” is to “reduce by a 10th” (it could have been a rule of war, but war has no rules)
4. Ali’s got a left, Ali’s got a right; when he knocks you down, you’ll sleep for the night; and when you lie on the floor and the ref counts to ten, hope and pray that you never meet me again. Muhammad Ali
5. If the world comes to an end, I want to be in Cincinnati. Everything comes there ten years later. Mark Twain
6. It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book. Friedrich Nietzsche (And he surely accomplished it.)
7. We are all geniuses up to the age of ten. Aldous Huxley (Some stretch it to age 30.)
8. When you hear people demanding that the Ten Commandments be displayed in courtrooms and schoolrooms, always be sure to ask which set. It works every time. Christopher Hitchens
9. By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he’s been bought ten times over. Gore Vidal
10. The smallest number, strictly speaking, is Zero. Khalid Masood (Ten is the smallest, astronomy-wise.)

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The Power of Ten in Words Somewhat Tamed

Come on, M! Where’s Anthi?

She has become invisibly here.

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I read the news today.

It was similar to yesterday’s.

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Ten fingers and ten toes.

Could we have ten brains?

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Where’s the organic meat?

Did you look under the tree?

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Do you trust anyone?

Let me think! Only the dead.

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Like a bridge over dried-up waters;

Let’s go fishing!

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Did you hear the one about Trump?

Sea-to-Lake?*

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Freaking murderous dictators everywhere;

The masses take forever to act.

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I want to live until 2042 at most;

Or 2063.

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* Mar-a-Lago means “Sea-to-Lake” in Spanish and Italian.

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174,517 - No Sense

What’s in a number

that’s only prime on account

of its arm wearer?

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Primo Levi of

direful “If This Is a Man”

earned it facing flames.

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Dedicated to Primo Levi.