Edward Kasner
Edward Kasner, (1878–1955), (CCNY 1897; CU M.A., 1897; Ph.D. 1900), who studied under Cassius Jackson Keyser, was a prominent Jewish American mathematician who was appointed Tutor on Mathematics at the Columbia University Mathematics Department, he was the first Jew appointed to a faculty position in the sciences at Columbia University.[1]
Kasner's Ph.D. dissertation was titled The Invariant Theory of the Inversion Group.
Edward Kasner is best remembered today for coining the term googol.
Around 1920, in order to pique the interest of children, Kasner wanted a catchy name for a very large number: one, followed by a hundred zeros. On a walk in New Jersey's Palisades with his nephews, Milton (c. 1911–1980) and Edwin Sirotta, Kasner asked for their ideas. Nine-year-old Milton suggested "googol."
In 1940, with James R. Newman, Kasner authored a non-technical book surveying the field of mathematics called Mathematics and the Imagination ISBN 0-486-41703-4. It was in this book that the term "googol" was introduced.
Words of wisdom are spoken by children as least as often by scientists. The name "googol" was invented by a child (Dr. Kasner's nine-year-old nephew) who was asked to think up a name for a very big number, namely, 1 with a hundred zeros after it. He was very certain that this number was not infinite, and therefore equally certain that it had to have a name. At the same time that he suggested "googol" he gave a name for a still larger number: "Googolplex." A googolplex is much larger than a googol, but is still finite, as the inventor of the name was quick to point out. It was suggested that a googolplex should be 1, followed by writing zeros until you get tired. This is a description of what would happen if one actually tried to write a googolplex, but different people get tired at different times and it would never do to have Carnera a better mathematician than Dr. Einstein, simply because he had more endurance. The googolplex then, is a specific finite number, with so many zeros after the 1 that the number is a googol. A googolplex is much bigger than a googol, much bigger even than a googol times a googol. A googol times a googol would be 1 with 200 zeros, whereas a googolplex is one with a googol of zeros. You will get some idea of the size of this very large but finite number from the fact that there would not be enough room to write it, if you went to the farthest star, touring all the nebulae and putting down zeros every inch of the way. [2]
The Internet search engine Google was named as a play on the number googol. Kasner also coined the term "googolplex" for the number written as one followed by a googol zeros; the Google offices are called Googleplex for this reason.
References
- Kasner, Edward (1980) [1934]. "Differential-geometric aspects of dynamics". In C.Carpelan, A.Parpola P.Koskikallio (ed.) (ed.). The Logarithmic potential and other monographs. New York: Chelsea. pp. pp. 235-263. ISBN 0-8284-0305-8.
{{cite book}}:|editor=has generic name (help);|pages=has extra text (help) - Kasner, Edward (April 2001) [London: Penguin, 1940; New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967]. Mathematics and the Imagination. Dover Pubns. ISBN 0-486-41703-4.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|year=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Edward Kasner and James R. Newman, Mathematics and the Imagination, Tempus Books of Microsoft Press, 1989. ISBN 1556151047
- Kasner, Edward (1921). "Geometrical theorems on Einstein's cosmological equations". Amer. J. Math. 43: 217.
- Bialik, Carl (June 14 2004). "There Could Be No Google Without Edward Kasner". The Wall Street Journal Online.
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Footnotes
- ^ Columbia and the "Jewish Problem” http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/stand_columbia/TimelineCUJew.html
- ^ Edward Kasner and James R. Newman, Mathematics and the Imagination,Tempus Books of Microsoft Press, 1989, p. 23.