5/6C’s Class Blog 2008

We’ve been exploring large numbers, noting how they become much easier to read when you put them in groups of three. But if you want to know how to read and write really big numbers, this Math Cats site is a great resource! From this I discovered that after the ones group, the following groups of three digits are, in order, the following:

• thousand, million, billion
• trillion, quadrillion, quintillion
• sextillion, septillion, octillion
• nonillion, decillion, undecillion
• duodecillion, tredecillion, quattuordecillion
• quindecillion, sexdecillion. septendecillion
• octodecillion, novemdecillion, vigintillion
• unvigintillion, duovigintillion, trevigintillion
• quattuorvigintillion, quinvigintillion (and yes, it goes on further!)

So, 98,765,432,101,234,567,890,987,654,321,014,872,589,369,096,385,

274,109,876,543,210,123,456,789,015,907,530

can be read as: ninety-eight quinvigintillion, seven hundred sixty-five quattuorvigintillion, four hundred thirty-two trevigintillion, one hundred one duovigintillion, two hundred thirty-four unvigintillion, five hundred sixty-seven vigintillion, eight hundred ninety novemdecillion, nine hundred eighty-seven octodecillion, six hundred fifty-four septendecillion, three hundred twenty-one sexdecillion, fourteen quindecillion, eight hundred seventy-two quattuordecillion, five hundred eighty-nine tredecillion, three hundred sixty-nine duodecillion, ninety-six undecillion, three hundred eighty-five decillion, two hundred seventy-four nonillion, one hundred nine octillion, eight hundred seventy-six septillion, five hundred forty-three sextillion, two hundred ten quintillion, one hundred twenty-three quadrillion, four hundred fifty-six trillion, seven hundred eighty-nine billion, fifteen million, nine hundred seven thousand, five hundred and thirty.

 Can you read these numbers?

•  981,564,987,258,654,957,153
• 6,547,845,528,812,585
• 678,558,426,423,168,746,585,468,742,337

Here’s another site about big numbers, the MegaPenny Project. Check out the pictures of a million pennies (US one cent coins) and the 1,000,000 cows!