That googol machine. Can someone explain what the machine is trying to illustrate and why the final gear can’t turn. I know it takes more energy than exists in the universe or something but why how what?
In: Physics
It demonstrates exactly how absurdly large a number a googol is (1 with a hundred zeros after it).
The machine has 100 gears and it takes 10 spins of a gear to move the one behind it….so it’d take 10 spins of the first gear to move the 2nd, 100 to reach the 3rd, 1k to reach the 4th, a million to reach turn the 7th gear, and a googol to finally reach the last.
If someone were to turn the crank once a second, it would take 32 years before they reached a billion turns- or the 10th gear….then 10x that to reach the 11th.
A fast motor, like one found in a Dremel (or similar rotary tool), spokning a fast 36,000/ minute, would be able to reach that same 10th gear in about 200 days of constant running. To reach the end at that speed, it would still take (roughly)
52,813,400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00,000,000,000,000,000 years.
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