Big Number Calculator
The calculator below can compute very large numbers. Acceptable formats include: integers, decimal, or the E-notation form of scientific notation, i.e. 23E18, 3.5e19, etc.
Most scientific and graphing calculators display at most about 10 decimal places of accuracy. That is enough for most everyday use, but it can be fairly limiting for applications where higher standards of accuracy are necessary — hence big number calculators such as the one above, which can provide far higher levels of accuracy. Big numbers are more likely to be used in fields such as cosmology, astronomy, mathematics, cryptography, and statistical mechanics.
Some big numbers that people are exposed to in everyday life include the number of bits on a computer's hard disk, the number of cells and neuronal connections in the body, Avogadro's constant, the estimated number of atoms in the observable universe, and combinatorial processes.
In some cases, the numbers worked with are so large that special notations such as Knuth's up-arrow notation, the Conway chained arrow notation, and Steinhaus–Moser notation were conceived. Nevertheless, there are certainly scientific uses for big number calculators today — and even if a person has no need to use one, it can be entertaining to satisfy one's curiosity about what 10,000 factorial looks like on a screen. Below is a table that shows big numbers in terms of powers of 10 as well as their respective names.
| Powers of 10 | Name |
|---|---|
| 109 | Billion |
| 1012 | Trillion |
| 1015 | Quadrillion |
| 1018 | Quintillion |
| 1021 | Sextillion |
| 1024 | Septillion |
| 1027 | Octillion |
| 1030 | Nonillion |
| 1033 | Decillion |
| 1036 | Undecillion |
| 1039 | Duodecillion |
| 1042 | Tredecillion |
| 1045 | Quattuordecillion |
| 1048 | Quindecillion |
| 1051 | Sexdecillion |
| 1054 | Septendecillion |
| 1057 | Octodecillion |
| 1060 | Novemdecillion |
| 1063 | Vigintillion |
| 10100 | Googol |
| 10303 | Centillion |
| 10googol | Googolplex |
Frequently Asked Questions
What number formats does the big number calculator accept?
Integers, decimals, and the E-notation form of scientific notation, such as 23E18 or 3.5e19. Numbers can be hundreds of digits long; commas and surrounding spaces are ignored.
What does the precision setting do?
Precision is the maximum number of digits kept after the decimal place in the result. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square roots, and negative powers are truncated (not rounded) at that many decimal places. Positive powers, factorials, MOD, GCD, and LCM produce exact integers.
How big is 10,000 factorial?
10,000! has 35,660 digits. This calculator computes factorials exactly, digit for digit, no matter how large they grow.
Why do MOD, GCD, and LCM reject decimals and zero?
Those three operations are defined here for positive integers only, so both numbers must be typed as positive integers (no decimal point, no sign). The same applies to the factorial: X! needs a positive integer.