Way before google!

By: Qwaider

On:Sunday, April 19, 2009 4:11:22 PM
In:Thoughts
Viewed: (5566) times

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Before the word google became a common household name. I knew what Googol means (not a typo)

Thanks to this man... May "God" rest his soul, for all his contributions to mankind

I've always been fascinated by the Universe, Math and physics. Always have, hopefully always will.

I've also searched for infinity, for as long as I can remember. My peers used to laugh at me when I started to explain to them how much energy could be generated from a single spoonful under nuclear fusion back in the 4th grade. While others laughed at how preposterous my claim that helicopters could stand still in the air back in kindergarten.

My search for infinity came to a screeching halt when I realized that it's really not about finding the largest [something], but rather some value, large enough, that it would be completely futile to attempt to reach it within a given system.

Think of it as a pot with a specific capacity. Infinity to that pot would be it's full volume, plus one. It doesn't matter what the remainder is, it is up to it's full capacity and wouldn't be able to take a single more atom, or the contents of the universe.

That single realization made all the difference in my life, changed me from a mathematician/physicist to an Engineer. On the personal level it forced me to focus more on practicality, and do-ability. Than simply finding a complete and final solution to the last digit.

So how long have you known what googol means before Google (that is if you were ever curious enough to wonder, after Google)? I would be curious to know.

If I could personally thank 2 people that ever lived, during my lifetime, and who were not family members. They would most certainly be Carl Sagan, and Zuhair Al Karmi (the man behind, Science and Life show, which I used to drop everything in the world to watch), somehow the other "science and religion" series, never really appealed to me

The man in the vedio is Carl Sagan, in case you were wondering

Memories....

#1
Faisal
Said
On: 4/20/2009 7:42:58 AM
SpamScore=[-0.23]

i learned about google ( and googol for that matter ) around 2004, when our Control Theory professor at the university of jordan told us about it and explained the meaning of the term to us!

The first time I heard someone use the word google as a verb in an everyday sentence "google him if you don't believe me", I burst laughing!! I thought he had just coined the term.

#2
Qwaider
Said
On: 4/20/2009 9:40:49 AM
SpamScore=[-40.71]

Before the word "Google" became synonymous with "search", it was Yahoo. (couple of movies also mention that).
But Google became the standard

#3
Marvin
Said
On: 4/21/2009 4:51:02 AM
SpamScore=[-0.55]

LOL, I knew what a googol was back when I was a larva. I was going to be an engineer, then a physicist, and finally gave up on being a useful member of society.

Carl "Billions and Billions" Sagan, God rest his soul, was a brilliant man, but I really resented it when he said shortly before his death that he basically believed that human life was alone in the universe. I found that offensive. ;-)