The American mathematician Edward Kasner once asked his nine-year-old nephew to invent a name for an extremely large number—ten to the power one hundred (10100), a one followed by a hundred zeroes. The boy called it a googol. Here it is: 10, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000. You, too, can make up your own very large numbers and give them strange names. Try it. It has a certain charm, especially if you happen to be nine.