Huge Numbers
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“A charming tour”—Jordan Ellenburg, author of Shape
What if, every time you wanted to write down 1,000,000, you had to draw a picture of a god? And what if that number...
Published By Basic Books
Format Hardback
Number Of Pages 368
Publication Date 04/28/2026
ISBN 9781541605923
Dimensions 6.35 inches x 9.55 inches
“Delightful, insightful, informative.”
—Wall Street Journal
“If the book was just a long list of big numbers and their origin stories, it might fall a bit flat, but the narrative is enlivened by explorations of the peculiarities of math history.”
—Undark“Richard Elwes’s new book Huge Numbers is great.”—Times (UK)
“A charming tour through the realm of the very, very, very numerous, from the ancient world through the distant future.”—Jordan Ellenberg, author of Shape
“Humanity has always been entranced by big numbers—the bigger the better. This fascinating exploration of the giants of the mathematical world is clear, informative, and immensely readable. Wonderful!”—Ian Stewart, author of In Pursuit of the Unknown
“Elwes provides a phenomenal scenic tour of googology (the study of huge numbers), covering everything from ancient Mayan and Babylonian numeral systems to the scale of the universe to the dizzyingly fast-growing functions of mathematical logic. I wish I had written this book.”
—Scott Aaronson, computer scientist and author of "Who Can Name The Bigger Number?"