It depends. If you're going to say that knowing the magnitude of a billion or a googol is trivia, why not also the fact that there are 360 degrees in a circle (arguably, radians are the only "natural" measure of angle) or that a kilometre is a thousand metres?
Indeed, you could even try claiming that our denary place-digit system is trivia rather than mathematics. (-8
Trivianess is not binary; I think the definition of a googol is probably well towards the trivia end of it, too. Not knowing a billion would be a bit more concerning, though - the term is relatively common. (But confusion is also excusable, given the persistence of the anachronistic 1012 version.)
Ditto. I did know what a googol was when I was eight, but it isn't a name that anyone actually uses outside of trivia quizzes as far as I know. The only numbers greater than 1000 with special names ought to be powers of 1000, and once you get much past 1000 most people use exponential notation anyway.
easy-peasy. pretty much just arithmetic, rather than maths. mind you i recently subscribed to news:sci.math and I don't understand half of it. in the veggie caff we tried for lunch today there was a copy of Sci Am with suggestions that somebody should devise a calculus for cat's cradle.
Seven, but I was partly confused by OldBloke standing behind me telling me how to do the 7 times table and partly by the fact that I am sadly quite crap at fractions.
And while I knew what a googol was, I couldn't remember the quantity of zeroes.
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Date: 2004-02-24 11:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2004-02-24 02:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-24 02:26 pm (UTC)Indeed, you could even try claiming that our denary place-digit system is trivia rather than mathematics. (-8
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Date: 2004-02-24 03:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2004-02-25 05:18 am (UTC)(And the same goes for using imperial measurements in front of children.)
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Date: 2004-02-25 08:31 am (UTC)pretty much just arithmetic, rather than maths.
mind you i recently subscribed to news:sci.math and I don't understand half of it.
in the veggie caff we tried for lunch today there was a copy of Sci Am with suggestions that somebody should devise a calculus for cat's cradle.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-25 09:41 am (UTC)And while I knew what a googol was, I couldn't remember the quantity of zeroes.