Large Number

A wide variety of large numbers crop up in mathematics. Some are contrived, but some actually arise in proofs. Often, it is possible to prove existence theorems by deriving some potentially huge upper limit which is frequently greatly reduced in subsequent versions (e.g., Graham's number, Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser theorem, Mertens conjecture, Skewes number, Wang's conjecture).

Large decimal numbers beginning with are named according to two mutually conflicting nomenclatures: the American system (in which the prefix stands for in ) and the British system (in which the prefix stands for in ). The British names for billion, trillion, etc. originate from the late 15th century when the French physician and mathematician Nicolas Chuquet (1445-1488) used the Latin prefixes to denote successive powers of one million ( ) and the suffix "-llion" to refer one million (Rowlett). In more recent years, the "American" system has become widely used in England as well as in the United States (The Chicago Manual of Style 2003). This constitutes a fortunate development for standardization of terminology, albeit a somewhat regrettable development from the point of view that the British convention for representing large numbers is simpler and more logical than the American one.

The following table gives the names assigned to various powers of 10 (Woolf 1980).