Googol Song - Numberphile

There are ways to waste your time until departure.
Like playing golf or reading Jeffrey Archer.
Some people spend some proper afternoons
on Wagner opera.
But Friday by Rebecca Black
is three minutes you won't get back!
So I have tried to write a song
that sets a record for how long
a song can possibly go on.
Are you ready, Matt?
It goes, 1,
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh,
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh,
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
That's right, let's do it again! Come on!
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh,
You can sing along if you like.
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh,
Although not if you're in a library
or on public transport.
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
We need to get a few more of these done.
How about we do three harmonies.
That way we'll get it done a lot quicker!
All right, here we go!
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh,
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh,
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
Nearly, hang on.
Hang on. Phew.
Well, bang the drum and play the victory bugle.
What you did just there is sing a googol.
*ding*
One with a hundred big fat zeros.
Buy yourself a drink, you hero.
Well, why complete this pointless task?
Well, now you're ready for the advanced class!
The next idea is more complex.
It's the ultimate time waster's test.
We'll try to sing a googolplex.
It's going to take a bit longer. 1,
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh,
Come on everyone!
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh,
You -- why you not doing it Matt?
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh,
We're not going to make it!
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
Matt, I thought you liked math! Seriously!
Why carry on?
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.
Because, we managed just,
eventually, to get 100 zeroes.
But a googol of --
there's no way we're going to get a
googol of zeroes on this board.
In fact, even if every single subscriber
to Numberphile, if they're all singing along,
which, believe me, they're not.
But if there are approximately half a million subscribers,
so that's 5 times 10 to the 5, if they all joined in,
and they did a 100 each, times 10 to the 2,
then that's only going to be 5 times 10 to the 7.
We will have hit 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
That's half a million people.
That is rubbish.
It's accurate.
Alright, let's try a few other things.
Alright.
Let's say that we're singing about 1.5 'oh's per second.
And I think we can recruit everyone
alive on Earth right now.
All of you Numberphiles, get hold of
everyone alive on Earth.
It's about 7 billion people, right? Yeah.
And how about we have been singing
since the dawn of time.
How about we do that.
So that's about 13.75 billion years.
Can you do that in seconds for me, Matt?
It's around about 3 times 10 to the 17 seconds.
Okay, that's good.
That's getting a good number up now.
So now we want to do some more 'oh's.
So how about we do what my old music
teacher used to suggest.
She used to say,
"Sing with every cell in your body!"
So that's 75 trillion cells.
So pop that in as well.
That's it, good, good
All right, now that should be getting
somewhere near a googolplex.
That's what we're aiming for.
That's what we're going to be near.
Okay, if we had every single human singing
with every single cell,
that's 3 times 10 to the 41,
which means you're up to around about
1, 2, 10, 20, 30, 41, there.
That is not bad! Seriously, that's like half!
I mean, we're halfway there.
Look, if we carry on --
No, no!
We just -- no, we just need to do double.
Shh, no, look, Brady, do the ding.
Ding, ding, ding.
*dong*
Exactly, right? We're not halfway there.
You don't -- you don't compare
the size of numbers by lining up the digits.
Alright? It's not a --
*ding*
-- sudoku. Right, you -- what was that ding?
What you do, right, is
you compare the actual relative sizes.
So just to put this into perspective,
if we had every single human singing with every single
cell of their body, and let's say a googol of zeros,
which is what we have to sing.
Let's say that was the size of the entire
known universe.
And I'm using the volume of the universe,
not the mass, because I haven't got a --
*ding*
-- clue what the mass is.
But if the universe was a googol of zeros,
every single human then sung with every single cell
since the dawn of time, we will have sung the
proportional volume -- of that.
It's pretty small.
Volume-wise, it's incredibly thin.
Is that it?
That's it. That's -- that's every single human,
every single cell, dawn of time.
And everything else in existence is the entire googol.
Well, that is disappointing.
It's accurate.
Well, what I've learnt -- today -- is that
I can sing a googol, sing a googol,
but not a googolplex.
Er...
Er...
Good?
Happy days?