ABSTRACT: With the advent of powerful hand-held calculators and the general increase in computing power, we humble humans have become somewhat jaded with respect to these large numbers that are now at our fingertips. In the 1980s, most standard calculators could not handle numbers over 10¹⁰⁰, but now most calculators will do anything except make you a ham sandwich. But how big is 10¹⁰⁰? What does a number like that even mean? Even smaller numbers like 4.3x10¹⁹ (the approximate number of arrangements possible on the Rubik’s Cube) are easy to dismiss as "small" since it would easily fit onto a calculator 30 years ago. But do you really have a good idea of the size of this number?

In this talk we will look at some large numbers that can come up naturally and give some insight as to the truly astounding size of these behemoths in “real world” terms. We will also use these numbers to give some very non-intuitive facts about probabilities. But do not worry, the math will be very general in nature and will only involve counting and (at the end) very basic probability. I can guarantee that at least at one point (if not many) in this talk, you will be surprised!