geekdom...bigtime

[Chopper]

now i'm not sure about you guys, but this is going to be really, really, really, geeky.

i heard the other day on the tv that there is a star, white dwarf, that scientists have discovered that became crystallized carbon once it burned itself out.

i know that white dwarfs are the smallest of extinguished stars, but listen to this.

crystallized carbon, under that kind of heat and pressure, is how diamonds are formed. scientists are saying this star is a SOLID diamond. ok, ladies, heres the biggest news of all...

it supposedly measures around 10 billion trillion trillion carats! and, they say it measures about 4,000 km in diameter. now, i dont profess to be a really smart guy, but thats big.

just how big, you ask? great, i'm glad you asked because that is why i'm posting this. i dont know. but, i would like to know how many zeros are in that number.

i assume trillion has 12 zeros. a trillion trillion? is that 12+12 for 24, or 12 X 12 for 144 zeros? a billion has 9, so is that 9 X 124 for 1,116 friggin zeros?

i dont know about you, but i cant fathom that number. i cant relate it to anything.

can any of you?

[Frink]

but, i would like to know how many zeros are in that number.

10 billion trillion trillion would be a 1 followed by 34 zeros.


I guess that would put a bit of a dent in the global diamond market. :P

[a500lbgorilla]

After the life of stars, some form into neutron stars. Stars barely 20 km in diameter, which are so dense that 1 teaspoon would weight on the order of a trillion tons on earth. These stars have such a powerful gravity that the only thing supporting their structure are neutron degeneracy pressure.

When two neutron stars collide, they spin around each other. They lose angular momentum and spin faster and closer together. Before they collide, these two unbelievably massive objects will be moving at close to the speed of light. Just imagine the amount of energy that would be released in that collision!

These stars have gravities so great, they freaking bend space time.

What's even more unbelievable is what happens if the stars are too massive. When gravity overcomes even neutrons tendency to not occupy the same space. Objects of almost infinite density which bend light and can "freeze" time.

There's shit so much cooler than big diamond stars :P

[Chopper]

Just imagine the amount of energy that would be released in that collision!

any way we could put some fundamentalist middle east terrorists near that collision?

oh, i know there is much cooler shit out there. and, even shit we havent discovered yet. the whole "warping time" concept is pretty deep, though. you have to be able to understand some pretty abstract concepts to picture that one.

and, btw, how do we come up with the zeros in a billion billion? that was the basic question, and i knew someone would know it. but, 34? can you show it, Frink?

thx.

[a500lbgorilla]

100 100s is 100 x 100 or by zeros math 2+2 = 4 zeros. ~10000.
A billion billions is 1000000000 x another billion or 9+9 = 18 zeros.

[biondino]

Yeah, you need to add, not multiply. A billion (9 zeros) + a trillion (12 zeros) plus a trillion (12 zeros) = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, aka one decillion.

[Chopper]

right on. and math is my strong suit...lol. btw, how big can you go? i've never heard of a "decillion." is there bigger?

[Pelion]

a googol is

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0 00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Ive heard infinity is pretty big too.

[Chopper]

thats the one...the googol. i remember it from chemistry but cant remember how many zeros in that thing.

and, yeah, i hear infinity is just beyond what we can measure...permanently.

[Jack Sawyer]

i need just 50 million €

[Mirage]

My head hurts!