Eon - The worlds largest number

How high is the sky?



Is it possible to touch the sky, while keeping your feet firmly grounded? At least one may attempt it, so here's my suggestion:

Here is the EON



I would like to suggest the Eon.

An Eon consists of 10 times 10,
as a sequence of rising powers:

                            10
                         10
                      10
                   10
                10
             10
          10
       10
    10
10

Rising powers



Normally powers of a number imply only one level. An example with two:

  4
 3
2   

 =    

 (3*3*3*3)
2

 (3*3*3*3)
2

   =    

 (9*9)
2

 (9*9)
2

  =    

 81
2

 81
2

  =    

?

2 in the power of 81 equals a number with 25 digits.

Results quickly hit the sky
with rising powers...

A kind of stairway



Maybe a stairway is a suitable metaphor; it needs the ground to remain stable. But if it didn't reach a higher level, it would be pointless.

I have not chosen any specific number, only used our numerical base: 10. This number is reused to determine the number of levels.

I only use the simplest digits 0 + 1.

Finally, 10 is understood intuitively: 10N is a number with N digits. Only our base number makes life that easy. Try this example, you'll see:

Which of these two is the larger:
45 or 54..? Not so easy, right?
But 10 is always simple...

Any larger..?



A number greater than an Eon should not only be larger, but equally simple. Surely 11 instead of 10 would go further, but paying with our intuitive sense of size.

Adding 1 to Eon would also be more, but again at the cost of simplicity. An Eon requires only one number (10), and only one operation (power).

Eon+1 requires two numbers (10,1) and two operations (power,addition).

Thus complexity doubles, but
what we gain is microscopic.



Mads Dam, february 2006