214 | Antonio Padilla on Large Numbers and the Scope of the Universe

<p>It’s a big universe we live in, so it comes as no surprise that big numbers are needed to describe it. There are roughly&nbsp;10^22&nbsp;stars in the observable universe, and about 10^88&nbsp;particles altogether. But these numbers are nothing compared to some of the truly ginormous quantities that mathematicians have found to talk about, with inscrutable names like Graham’s Number and TREE(3). Could such&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_numbers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">immense numbers</a>&nbsp;have any meaningful relationship with the physical world? In his recent book&nbsp;<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374600570/fantasticnumbersandwheretofindthem" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them</em></a>, theoretical physicist Antonio Padilla explores both our actual universe and the abstract world of immense numbers, and finds surprising connections between them.</p><p><em>Support Mindscape on&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Patreon</em></a><em>.</em></p><p>Antonio (Tony) Padilla received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Durham. He is currently a Royal Society Research Fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham. He is a frequent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ppzap4/media.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">contributor</a>&nbsp;to the YouTube series&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/sixtysymbols" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sixty Symbols</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/numberphile" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Numberphile</a>.</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ppzap4/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Web page</a></li><li><a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/physics/people/antonio.padilla" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nottingham staff page</a></li><li><a href="https://scholar.goo