Topics: Google

Google's Mathematical Limit

Posted by Thomas Claburn, Jun 1, 2007 07:49 PM

How high can Google count? Very high it turns out, but there is a limit. Using the Google search box as a calculator, Google's ceiling appears to be 2.00135558564^1023, which Google says equals 1.79769313 × 10^308.

Try 3^1023 and you get the search results page instead of a calculated result. The same holds true for 2^1024.

Increasing the number to 2.001355585641^1023 results in the same total, 1.79769313 × 10^308. So that appears to be where Google stops calculating.

Does that mean anything? Not to me. And probably not to anyone else, apart from a few computer scientists. But knowing that Google has a limit is somehow comforting.

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