Editing 2283: Exa-Exabyte
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision | Your text | ||
Line 22: | Line 22: | ||
[[Cueball]] expresses his difficulty in visualizing a number even as large as ''one'' exabyte (10<sup>18</sup> bytes). | [[Cueball]] expresses his difficulty in visualizing a number even as large as ''one'' exabyte (10<sup>18</sup> bytes). | ||
− | [[Megan]] trivializes the problem away by describing an exabyte as 10 apples, with "18 smaller apples, floating next to them and a little above", representing the notation 10<sup>18</sup> using apples for digits. This is entirely unhelpful, as using apples in a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unary_numeral_system base-1] enumeration offers no obvious advantages over base-10 in understanding exponents; Megan's bad advice | + | [[Megan]] trivializes the problem away by describing an exabyte as 10 apples, with "18 smaller apples, floating next to them and a little above", representing the notation 10<sup>18</sup> using apples for digits. This is entirely unhelpful, as using apples in a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unary_numeral_system base-1] enumeration offers no obvious advantages over base-10 in understanding exponents; Megan's bad advice & Cueball's seemingly ready acceptance of it causes Miss Lenhart to yell out "No!" in frustration. |
The title text further trivializes the problem of visualizing large numbers by suggesting that you can visualize 10<sup>18</sup> as a number by simply visualizing the similar-looking number of 10<sup>13</sup> with some extra lines drawn to turn the 3 into an 8. Changes in exponents can cause huge changes in the value shown, and this is no exception: Changing that 3 into an 8 changes the value by a factor of 100,000. | The title text further trivializes the problem of visualizing large numbers by suggesting that you can visualize 10<sup>18</sup> as a number by simply visualizing the similar-looking number of 10<sup>13</sup> with some extra lines drawn to turn the 3 into an 8. Changes in exponents can cause huge changes in the value shown, and this is no exception: Changing that 3 into an 8 changes the value by a factor of 100,000. |