this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2025
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Image transcription

“what is the biggest number”

AI Overview

The biggest number in the world is so big that mathematicians don't even think it exists.

Top 5 biggest numbers, according to me.

  1. 5
  2. 1 Million
  3. 100 Billion
  4. 999 Trillion
  5. Brazillian

Original post: https://xcancel.com/ChatgptLunatics/status/1995441330986598532

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[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago

I asked the Brave search AI thing and it said this:

what is the biggest number

There is no largest number because the set of natural numbers is infinite; for any number you can think of, adding one produces a larger number. While infinity is often mentioned, it is not a number but an abstract concept representing boundlessness.

Among named numbers, a googol ( 10^100 ) is a 1 followed by 100 zeros, and a googolplex ( 10^googol ) is 1 followed by a googol of zeros, making it vastly larger than a googol. The googolplex is so large that writing it out would require more space than the observable universe contains.

However, even larger numbers exist in mathematical contexts. Graham's number, used in a proof in Ramsey theory, is significantly larger than a googolplex and was once considered the largest number used in a legitimate mathematical proof. It is so immense that it cannot be expressed using standard scientific notation and requires special notations like Knuth's up-arrow or Conway chained arrow notation.

Other extremely large numbers include TREE(3), which grows faster than any primitive recursive function and is independent of weak arithmetic systems, and Friedman's SSCG(3), which is much larger than TREE(3). The Busy Beaver function produces numbers that are uncomputable and exceed any computable function.

Rayo's number is defined as "the smallest positive integer bigger than any finite positive integer named by an expression in the language of first-order set theory with a googol symbols or less" and is considered one of the largest named numbers. Similarly, BIG FOOT is a number proposed as even larger than Rayo's number.

In summary, while numbers like a googolplex are often cited as the largest named numbers, mathematical constructs such as Graham's number, TREE(3), and Rayo's number are vastly larger and demonstrate that there is no upper limit to how large a number can be.

No idea if that's accurate or not but it sounds legit lol.