Friday, October 17, 2008

Astronomical Nos...Economical Nos...Infant Nos...

Came across a very relevant quote in today's context from Richard Feynman while reading one of his books/articles. He was a brilliant, leading post-war theoretical physicist, a Nobel Laureate, a great teacher, terrific original thinker, and writer. I quote: "There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It is less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers. - Richard Feynman, physicist, Nobel Laureate ( 1918-1988)"

When seen in today's context of financial crisis which runs in trillions of dollars, this number looks even smaller. Next-generation will probably start counting from $1BN, $2BN, $3BN....$100 BN. Had he been alive...he may have called them "Infant Numbers".

What do you say? Or Can you propose some other name!

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