Math's question ???

[Brainy J]

Can anyone help with my sons homework...........
He has been asked to find out..... What is the longest number??????
Any ideas, pleeeeeeease

[weeal]

sounds like a trick question to me, no idea soz

[hau kola]

infinity.

[Heidihi1301]

infinity minus one ?

[dot.hawkes]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,27 63,1428430,00.html

[THECORBYLOON]

If it�s a serious question, a googol is 10 to the power 100 (or 1 followed by 100 zeroes) and a googolplex is 1 followed by a googol zeroes.

[Brainy J]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

[mibn2cweus]

Graham's Number

[Brainy J]

Just had a look at Grahams Number, and that looks very good to me.
Thank you so much.

[mibn2cweus]

Please let us know whether or not we get an A ! ?

[Brainy J]

mibncweus - U get an A* from me.
** Thankyou **

[chakka35]

Your son's answer should be:

"There is no such thing as the biggest number. If there were, all you would have to do is add one to get a bigger number."

That should get him full marks.

[Brainy J]

Chakka35 - yes you are quite right.

Big Thankyou to everyone that helped with the answer
You are all very clever people

He has been to school today and was told the answer was infinity or 999999999 recurring !!!!!!!!!

[stewey]

Infinity is not a number; it's a concept. You say the teacher asked for the 'longest' number and told your son that the answer if nine 9s in a row followed by recurring. Surely ten 9s in a row followed by recurring is longer. Not too sure about this teacher.

[Brainy J]

i see your point. !!!!!!!

[Whickerman]

What about 9999999999recurring + 1?

[Brainy J]

maybe ?????????????????

[stewey]

Looking back at my response, I think I was a little too blunt towards the teacher. What I meant, I guess, was that the teacher should not give a definitive answer to it because there is none. It is not the type of question which has a single answer: such as "What is the present capital city of France?" The question he/she asked was meant to promote thinking, discussing, and researching amongst the students which it probably did: just look at our responses!

[Brainy J]

Dont worry, his teacher will never see this !!
I thought it was a strange question to ask, but i thought if i put it on here, i might get it explained to me.....
I think everyone has been very constructive and im really pleased will everyones comments.
If he gets another question that i can't answer, i will put it on here again, so keep your eyes peeled. Ha ha.
Thanks EVERYONE.

[mibn2cweus]

Here's a rather long one:

1st billion digits of pi

[Brainy J]

Oh my Goodness, that is a big number !!!!
Now you are getting technical ha ha
Dont know how, or where you find these things!!!