World's biggest reduction gear - video

[Jon]

Billed as the world's biggest reduction gear. Built to visualize the number googol. Thanks to mklotz for the suggestion. By Daniel de Bruin. 1 hour video:

More: https://danieldebruin.com

Previously: Analog 3D printer - GIF

[mklotz]

A googol, ten raised to the power 100, is larger than the number of elementary particles in the universe so the fact that someone can construct a mechanical device that requires the use of the term in its description is really impressive.

It's not that hard to construct computational examples that can exceed a googol of combinations or permutations but physical mechanisms are a whole other thing.

Despite the stunning magnitude of the googol, there is an even bigger number, the googolplex, which is ten raised to the googol power; in math notation 10^(10^100). If you want a real shop challenge, design a mechanism that demonstrates a googolplex as this one does a googol. Good luck.

[owen moore]

This video reduced me to slumber. Reminds me of the one I watched on paint drying.

[hemmjo]

But then, 10^(10^((10^100)) would be even larger than 10^(10^100) and we could go on forever.

Got me wondering.. is that were Google got their name? from googol

[mklotz]

But then, 10^(10^((10^100)) would be even larger than 10^(10^100) and we could go on forever.

Got me wondering.. is that were Google got their name? from googol

Ahh, you've discovered the argument that proves there is no largest number.

Yes, Google's name derives from 'googol', as this extract from the Wiki article indicates...

Eventually, they changed the name to Google; the name of the search engine originated from a misspelling of the word "googol",[33][34] the number 1 followed by 100 zeros, which was picked to signify that the search engine was intended to provide large quantities of information.[35]

Also, from the same article, ...

Google moved to its headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex. In August 2015

[Karl_H]

I only made it to 37 minutes!

[Frank S]

I only made it to 37 minutes!

I skipped to the end early on the annoying music would drive me nuttier than I already am if I was forced to endure the full hour at the end the 6th gear had only advanced 1 tooth. the torque output would be phenomenal if it were even possible to up size each gear in the train to be able to accommodate the full amount of torque available from the preceding gear

[Paul Alciatore]

I assume there were 100 of those 10:1 gears there. Thanks for posting.

The google and the googleplex are two of my favorite numbers. We must have read the same books in our youths. And I wonder just how many people really know the origin of the name of the Google company.

[mklotz]

So you have favorite numbers too ?

Some of mine include:

355/113 - the simplest high accuracy rational approximation to pi

1/x = x-1 - the equation whose solution is the golden ratio

e^(i*pi) = -1 - Euler's equation, an irrational number raised to an imaginary irrational power yields an integer

[Karl_H]

Another 2 cents worth