Dectillion...

[J.A.K.]

In trying to "grasp" large numbers, my father told me that he heard a professor say that there is not a dectillion grains of sand in all the beaches and deserts and not a dectillion drops of water in all the oceans. Could this be true?

[Nottom]

Yeah seems right.

Here is a fun sire for visualizing how big some "big numbers" really are. It doesn't get to a decillion, but it might let you begin to understand how big that number really is.

MegaPenny Project. (http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/default.asp)

Edit: also here (http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=539329) is a post which shows the estimate for number of grains of sand on Earth at around 7.5 x 10^18 or 7.5 Quintillion (billion billion). Well short of a decillion.

[RocketManJames]

You think that's big... try to comprehend Graham's Number.

Page Describing Graham's Number (http://www.pballew.net/ramsey.html)

-RMJ

[MidGe]

there is more...

see here (http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/math/largenum.html) .