TLDR: The most important quantity is 16 digits lengthy
Ask an astronomer and we journey in aeons into the universe and past.
Ask a microbiologist and we slip into mystical quarks and preons, the constructing blocks of every thing.
Ask my 5 yr outdated and also you get 643.
This can be a query everybody can guess, however while you get to the nitty-gritty is surprisingly private.
Infinity
I’m discounting it, like imaginary numbers, infinity is an alchemy, an emblem, fairly than a practicable digit. It may by no means seem on a tape measure.
Listed below are the parameters:
1. Each particular person digit should depend:
It’s superior that the universe is estimated at 93 billion gentle years from finish to finish, but it surely might be 93.4 or 93.5 and each could be nice. To get throughout the hair’s breadth of element the biggest quantity requires would want an utility for it to make sense. Travelling from one aspect of the universe to the opposite could be nice, however…
“You’re actually not going to love it”
— Hitchhikers Information to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Even when we felt the necessity, this a is quantity we all know fluctuates. The scale of the universe is beneficial, however the variety of 93 billion gentle years is to showcase pure awe — a poster baby for what huge means.
At its greatest it’s merely a reference level for numbers which are far smaller, fairly than one thing price figuring out to billions of digits of accuracy.
2. The quantity should have a sensible, real-world, utility:
There are teams devoted to figuring out lengthy numbers for the sake of the quantity itself. As of writing Pi is thought to 62.8 trillion digits.