How we shook the world of very large numbers

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

How did an edition of More or Less from 2017 end up influencing the choice of official names for extremely large numbers? We tell the tale of how an interview between presenter Tim Harford and maths whizz Rob Eastaway did just that. Also featuring Professor Richard Brown, head of metrology at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory. Presenter: Tim Harford Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Richard Vadon Production Coordinator: Janet Staples Sound Engineer: James Beard Image: Large number, Credit: Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading the More or Less podcast.
0:03.6	We are weekly guide to the numbers all around us in the news and in life, and I'm Tim
0:07.4	Halford.
0:08.4	We're a pretty modest bunch here on More or Less.
0:17.8	We try to do what we do in a fairly understated sort of way, but we were rather interested
0:23.5	to hear about a small role the programme played in something pretty major in the Kingdom
0:28.6	of Nurdland, which is the Kingdom dearest to our hearts.
0:33.7	Our tale begins with a programme we broadcast back in 2017, and an interview I did with
0:39.6	Rob Eastaway, Mathswiz and General Friend of the show.
0:43.6	The subject?
0:44.6	Monster numbers.
0:46.6	So what's the mega?
0:47.8	So it's not a Greek word, all a lot of Greek references here, so this is mega-ass,
0:51.9	which means big or tall, and it's interesting when it started getting adopted in modern language.
0:57.9	I think it might be the Megalosaurus, the giant lizard that was found near Oxford in the
1:03.8	1820s.
1:04.8	Yeah, that is a good dinosaur.
1:06.5	It was very good dinosaur.
1:07.8	But it's a million.
1:09.1	So then we get on to Giggas.
1:11.3	Now I now have a thumb drive that's 38 Giggabytes, so what's the Gigga coming from?
1:15.8	So this is now 10 to the 9, as a thousand times higher.
	...

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