Insanely Ridiculously Absurdly Large Numbers

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More

Gary Arndt

Education, History

4.7 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2026

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One of the first mathematical concepts that most of us grasp when we are children is that there is no such thing as the biggest number. No matter what number you pick, you can always add one to it.You might think that such a simple idea wouldn’t have any profound impact in mathematics, but it does.In fact, mathematicians have come up with numbers so mind-bogglingly large that it is difficult to even grasp their size, and new forms of notation had to be developed to even write them down. Learn more about Insanely Ridiculously Absurdly Large Numbers on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Quince Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order! Mint Mobile Get your 3-month Unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/eed Subscribe to the podcast! https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Austin Oetken & Cameron Kieffer Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/ Disce aliquid novi cotidie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	One of the first mathematical concepts that most of us grasp when we're children is that there's no such thing as the biggest number.
0:07.3	No matter what number you pick, you can always add one to it.
0:10.9	Now, you might think that such a simple idea wouldn't have any profound impact in mathematics, yet it does.
0:16.9	In fact, mathematicians have come up with numbers so mind-bogglingly large that it's difficult
0:22.3	to even grasp their size, and new forms of notation had to be developed to even write them down.
0:28.5	Learn more about insanely, ridiculously, absurdly large numbers on this episode of Everything
0:34.2	Everywhere Daily.
0:47.3	Music of Everything Everywhere Daily. AI is incredible.
0:49.3	They can teach you how to fry an egg and even write a poem, pirate style.
0:55.0	But it knows nothing about your work.
0:58.0	Slackbot is different. It doesn't just know the facts. It knows your schedule.
1:03.0	It can turn a brainstorm into a brief and it doesn't need to be taught.
1:08.0	Because Slackbot isn't just another AI. It's AI that knows your work as well as
1:12.9	you do. Visit Slack.com forward slash meet Slackbot to learn more. Overwhelmed by investing.
1:20.8	If you're anything like us, the hardest part is getting started. That's why we created the
1:24.7	Investing for Beginners podcast. Our goal is to help simplify money so it can work for you.
1:30.4	We invite guests to demystify investing.
1:32.7	At least like the minimum 10% into the 401k.
1:36.8	I'm Dave Ahern and I'm Andrew Sather.
1:39.9	And we hope you join us on the Investing for Beginners podcast.
1:43.5	On the Investing for Beginners podcast. On the Investing for Beginners podcast.
1:50.9	Let me start by saying that this episode is not about infinity.
	...

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