HELEN ARNEY: (SINGING) 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 set a record for how
long a song can possibly go on.
Are you ready, Matt?
It goes, 1, [SINGING GOOGOL SONG]
That's right, let's do it again.
Come on.
[SINGING GOOGOL SONG]
you can sing along, if you like.
[SINGING GOOGOL SONG]
although not if you're in a library
or on public transport.
[SINGING GOOGOL SONG]
We need to get a few more of these done.
How about we do three harmonies.
That way we'll get it down a lot quicker.
All right, here we go.
[SINGING GOOGOL SONG]
MATT PARKER: Nearly, hang on.
Hang on.
Phew.
HELEN ARNEY: (SINGING) Well bang the drum and play the
victory bugle.
What you did just there is sing a Googol.
One a hundred big fat zeros.
But 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 tried to sing a Googolplex.
It's going to take a bit longer.
1, [SINGING GOOGOLPLEX SONG]
come on, everyone.
[SINGING GOOGOL SONG]
Why are you not doing it, Matt?
[SINGING GOOGOLPLEX SONG]
MATT PARKER: We're not going to make it.
HELEN ARNEY: Matt, I thought you liked math.
Seriously.
Why are you carrying on?
MATT PARKER: Because look, we managed just, eventually, to
get 100 zeroes.
But a googol of zeroes-- 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 were all singing along, which,
believe me, they're not.
But if the approximately half a million subscribers, so
that's 5 times 10 to the 5, if they all joined in, and they
did 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.
HELEN ARNEY: That's rubbish.
MATT PARKER: It's accurate.
HELEN ARNEY: All right, let's try a few other things.
Let's say that we're singing about what 1.5 0'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?
MATT PARKER: Yeah.
HELEN ARNEY: And how about we have been singing since the
dawn of time.
How about we do that.
So that's about [INAUDIBLE] billion years.
Can you do that in seconds for me, Matt?
MATT PARKER: It's round about 3 times 10 to the 17 seconds.
HELEN ARNEY: OK, that's good.
That's getting a good number up now.
So now we want to do some more 0's.
So how about we do want 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.
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.
MATT PARKER: OK, 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 10, 20, 30, 41, there.
HELEN ARNEY: That is not bad.
Seriously, that's like half.
I mean, we're halfway there.
If we carry on--
MATT PARKER: No.
HELEN ARNEY: No, we just need to do double.
No look, Brady, do the ding.
Ding, ding, ding--
[DING]
MATT PARKER: Exactly, right we're not halfway there.
You don't compare the size of numbers by
lining up the digits.
It's not a [BLEEP]
sudoku.
What was that ding?
What you do, right, is you compare the
actual relative sizes.
So just to put into perspective, if we had every
single human singing with every single cell of their
body, and let's say a googol of zeroes, 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 known university, not the
mass, because I just haven't got a [BLEEP]
clue what the mass is.
But if the universe was a google of zeroes, 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.
HELEN ARNEY: Is that is.
MATT PARKER: That's it.
That's every single human, every single
cell, dawn of time.
And everything else in existence
is the entire googol.
HELEN ARNEY: Well, that is disappointing.
MATT PARKER: It's accurate.
HELEN ARNEY: Well, what I've learned today is that (SING) I
can sing a googol, sing a googol, but not a googolplex.
Good?
Happy day?