Are a googol and a googolplex ever practically used? Is there a googol or a googolplex of anything in the Universe?
by 
Mawgan
ANSWERS: 3
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Not really. About as close as you'll come to a meaningful application of a googol = 10^100 is: "Two back-of-envelope calculations give the number of atoms in the observable universe to be around 10^80" (Ref http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe ) So calling it an even googol overestimates the figure by a "mere" 10^20! Googolplex = 10^googol is a ridiculously big number, and yet finite. So comparisons of "infinity" with large numbers such as googolplex are mathematically meaningless. Sometimes when you need something stronger than a "gazillion", it's nice to have a "googolplex" to stand in for it! It's useful as a linguistic device.
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There are no objects in the universe that could be numbered with a googolplex or even a googol. So you couldn't apply these numbers to concrete things. However, these numbers could be applied to abstract things, such as the odds of something. For example, let's say the odds of winning the state lottery is 1 in 20 million. Suppose you buy exactly 1 quickpick every day for 40 years. Your odds of winning the lottery every single day for 40 years would be about 1 in a googolplex.
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Grains of sand on the beach or stars in the sky (not just the ones you can see)
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