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Currently I'm dealing with extremely large numbers and so I've been wondering how to name them...

I know of the usual Definitions, like a Decillion is 10^33 or 10^66 on the short and long scale respectively (Here, I'm just using the short scale). Basically to get the name of these numbers you have to subtract 3 and the number's modulo 3, then divide by 10, translate to latin, "cut off" the last few syllables/lettters and put an "-illion" there.

E.g.: For 10^33 this would be: 33-3-(33%3) = 30; 30/3 = 10; Ten -> Decem -> Decillion.

However, is this still true for extremely oversized numbers like let's say 10^2550?

In this example it would mean

(2550 - 3)/3 = 849; eight hundred and forty nine -> octingentos quadraginta novem -> Octingentosquadragintanonillion

but this sounds just really weird. Is it an error in translation (I'm using Google Translate) or even a viable rule to "translate" these kinds of numbers into written text?

BloodEchelon
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    "Octingentosquadragintanonillion" is completely incomprehensible. You simply describe it as "ten to power of 2550" or something similar. There is no commonly used name for such large numbers apart from a few like Googol or Googoplex. Giving something a name is only really useful if the reader knows that name and/or have some intuition about it. That's rarely the case with such huge numbers. – Winther Dec 11 '18 at 14:39
  • +1 for the "grammatical rule" to name numbers – Surb Dec 11 '18 at 17:30
  • Plus with numbers like that, nobody imagines the number anyway: they imagine its representation (ie what the string of digits looks like). – timtfj Dec 11 '18 at 17:46
  • Interestingly, $10^{2550}$ is not that much different, in the sense of how many orders of magnitude away from $1$ the number is, than the number $10^{-2576}$ that I brought up here. For a representation of your number (what I guess @timtfj is thinking of), $10^{-2550}$ is very nearly the probability that, if you flip a coin once each second for $2$ hours $21$ minutes $11$ seconds, then you'll get heads each time. For more "representations" of large numbers, see this. – Dave L. Renfro Dec 11 '18 at 18:22

2 Answers2

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I think you're stuck with descriptions rather than names for most of the really big ones: "1 with three thousand and fifty zeros" or whatever. Words like vigintillion require the reader or listener to do some mental arithmetic to work out what they mean, which defeats the purpose of giving them names.

(I'm assuming you want the names as an informal way of talking about the numbers, eg to a general reader.)

timtfj
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  • Also, for astronomical distances, I've found inch-to-the-mile maps of inch-to-the-mile maps a useful analogy for imagining them. – timtfj Dec 11 '18 at 17:51
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You're so close to having the answer. Just order your translated numbers the other way.

Yes, the other previous answers raise valid alternatives for ways you could render the numbers instead. But, in direct answer to your question, you order the numbers in Latin "ones, tens, hundreds," dropping the appropriate syllables, and appending "-illion."

$10^{483}$ is verifiably $\frac{483-3}{3}=160$ "Sexagintacentillion" Which translates to "sixty-and-one-hundred-illion."

By that idiom, $10^{751}$ is "ten novequadragintaducentillion" (nine-and-forty-and-two-hundred). To translate it, first plug in "nine," then "forty," then "two hundred," individually. Then combine them yourself. The translators I've used get confused when you flip the numbers the wrong way, and it fouls up the translation.

$10^{1316}$ is one hundred septetrigintaquadringentillion, etc.

Ho-Oh
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Jason
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