The Size of it All

From Strings to Superclusters and Beyond

Philosophically speaking, given that there are some things that presently exist that have not always been here and anything which has a beginning owes its existence to something else that came before it, then ultimately there must be something that lacks an origin. In other words, if there were ever nothing then there wouldn’t be anything, which would negate everything, so there is always something. As part of this ontology and cosmology, the infinite multiverse is more or less endlessly filled with finite universes at various different stages of evolution and their corresponding size.

So, to cope with the enormous range of quantities that stretch from zero to infinity, the scientific community uses an abbreviated notation based on repeating factors. Consider the fact that ten times ten times ten times ten times ten times ten is the same as ten to the sixth power (10⁶), which is the same as one million: 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 = 1,000,000. The first of these interchangeable versions are in what is known as the expanded form, while the second refers to the kind of exponential expression used in scientific notation. In this particular instance, the base ten is repeated by a factor of six.

Through the application of this brilliant mathematical method, an unwieldily large number like…