Giving A Number a Name

Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things.  — Henri Poincare

Everything needs a name. Even numbers. I guess you could say every number has its day. In fact, 10¹⁰⁰ (that’s 10 to the 100th power) was named a googol by American mathematician Edward Kasner’s 9-year-old nephew. It’s from this word that the famous search engine, Google, derived its name.

Now there’s a story about another large number in need of a name. Austin Sendek, a physics major at UC Davis started a Facebook campaign to name 10 to the 27th power. Ahh, that’s so sweet. I bet 10²⁷ has to be a fairly lonely number. I mean it is a 10 followed by 27 zeros. Not too many people pay attention to it. It’s fitting that it be given a name.

But, believe it or not, there’s a schism in the plan. There are some people opposed to the moniker Sendek is recommending.

He suggests that 10 to the 27th power be called hella. I thought maybe hella might be some scientific word, maybe linking back to helium or something like that. Not so. The story is much more colloquial than that. Rumor has it that hella is the result of a progression of derivations, originating from the common phrase “hell of a.”

I grew up in a small town where we call loud summer insects locusts so “hella” sounds a little like city-folk profanity to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no expert on four-letter words, it’s just that this one feels like it’s missing something. Saying “that’s a hella deal” instead of a “helluva deal” sounds like someone who’s trying to curse but just doesn’t know how to do it right.

But hella obviously has its own place in expletive history. Sendek says in an article in the LA Times that his parents wouldn’t even let him say it when he was a kid. If parents in California won’t let their kids say it, then it must be a big deal.

Let’s see. Sendeck is 20 which means that was probably 10-15 years ago. All I can think at this point is, “People have been saying hella that long and I’ve hardly even heard of it?” And we thought it was only fashion that took it’s time getting to the Midwest. His parents did compromise and would allow him to say “hecka.” We used to do the same thing with the word helicopter; we called it hecka-copter. Not because we thought there was something “wrong” with the prefix, but just because it was fun.

In the end, I think Sendek has a good recommendation. And I guess there are 61,515 people who agree with me (that’s how many have joined his Facebook campaign). I think we all can agree that Hella is a perfect name for a helluva number!