Tonight at church a friend who is a Princeton PhD gave a fireside on science and religion. Andrew, who is 10 years old, really wanted to go. So I took him.
At one point during the presentation, our friend showed a slide with this number:
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Our friend asked: "Does anyone know what this number is?" He was not expecting an answer. The point of the question was to show how large the number is.
But Andrew raised his hand and practically jumped out of his seat. "Ooh! Ooh!"
"Yes?"
From the back row, Andrew said, "That's 1 nonillion."
Pause.
Our friend asked, "Is that right? Does he know that?"
I said, "I wouldn't think so. Then again, he surprises us all the time."
The presentation moved on, and I grew increasingly curious. So I looked up "nonillion" on my iphone. Andrew was wrong. One nonillion = 30 zeroes. The number on the slide had only 29 zeroes.
When we talked about this after the presentation, our friend the Princeton PhD was duly impressed.
I am a little bit freaked out.
6 comments:
speechless and laughing
Um.. er... wow!
Don't you just wonder what's going on in that head sometimes?
yikes! what a smartie! good luck!
Wow!!! pretty smart!
so what is 29 zeroes? and andrew makes me feel dumb
It's 100 octillion...duh.
just kidding (about the duh).
that kid is scary smart.
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