Exponents

Have you learned about Exponents in School?

Take a number like 10^2  ("ten squared")

that would be 10 with 2 zeroes behind it:  100

Or 10^5 would be 10 with 5 zeroes or 100,000.

I recently learned that scientist agree if you take all the atoms in the universe

it would be 10^18 atoms, or:

1,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms.

I don't even know what that number is!!

I also recently learned of the work of Fred  Hoyle, a British mathematician and astronomer.

He calculated the odds on life evolving here on earth.

"Could life have evolved at random?" asks Hoyle in one of his books, "The Intelligent Universe".  

He compares the probability of life appearing spontaneously to 

a horde of monkeys being able to type Shakespeare if enough time is given 

or the chance that even one protein appeared spontaneously 

is equal to the odds that a blindfolded person could 

solve the Rubik cube using 1 move per second--that would take 300 times the age of the Earth!

And the odds to randomly produce the 2000 universal cellular enzymes required by all cells 

 would be 10^40,000 !  Yes, a "one" with 40,000 zeroes trailing it!