Today at work someone asked what came after a trillion. I realized that I didn't know, so I found this mind bending web page.

Then Neal asked "how far do numbers go before we get to start just making up names?" Well since it's all just based on numeric prefixes, I suppose we've got names covered infinitely, but I did express my surprise that corporate sponsorship hadn't tried to get in on this. Just be thankful we don't have to deal with a "Pepsilion", or maybe a "Verizonillion." They could also take the route of naming numbers in honor of celebrities, scientists, politicians, and such. You could end up with a "Cruiseillion" or worse yet, a "Bushillion".

I'll stick with the good old traditionals, as I can remember first being told about a "googol plex" by my childhood friend, Chris. Thats 10 to the power of a googol (a googol being 10 to the 100th power). We carried that little factoid around proudly and would whip it out as out brainiac weapon whenever we needed it.

"Well you're dumb times a million!"
"You're dumb times a googol plex!"

No using infinity, because that's just cheap and cheating. If only we'd known that 10 to the 201st power is a sexsexagintillion, we would have had a very childish laugh. In fact I just did.