Spaghetti Numbers - Numberphile

BRADY HARAN: So I was out doing the shopping the other
day, and I walked past Alphabetti.
What words can you spell?
But then something else caught my eye.
Numberetti.
What's the biggest number you can make?
Those evil geniuses at Heinz know that no self-respecting
Numberphile can resist that challenge.
And that's what this video is about.
Now of course, a highbrow filmmaker like me doesn't want
to get his hands dirty, so I've brought in the neighbors,
Danny and Emily.
And before you accuse me of using slave labor, make sure
you watch the end of this video when we negotiate an
appearance fee.
So here we go, extracting the numbers.
It's a dirty business.
EMILY: Is that a seven?
BRADY HARAN: Now if you take all these numbers and just add
them together, you come up with quite a modest 881.
Then we tried multiplying them together, and we came up with
a slightly more impressive.

But an even bigger number comes when you displace the
numbers end on end, making one big integer.
This is going to take a while, and I probably won't include
all of it in this video for obvious reasons.
999 tresexagintillion, 999 duosexagintillion--

688 quinquinquagintillion--
sexquadragintillion--
776 quadragintilllion--
444 septenvigintillion--
333 novemdecillion--
111 duodecillion, 111 undecillion, 111 decillion,
100 nonillion.
That's it.
So here are the digits.
I'd be curious to know what the biggest number you can
come up with is.
First of all, using just addition.
Or maybe using just multiplication.
And lastly, what's the biggest number you can make if we
bring powers into play?
You can leave a message under the video, or if you think
you're going to bust the character limit, and I think
there's a chance you might, you can also send me an email.
And depending on what you come up with, we might make another
video about the biggest number you can make from a tin of
Numberetti.
You've got two options here.
DANNY: Yep.
BRADY HARAN: I will give each of you four pounds right now.
EMILY: Yeah.
BRADY HARAN: You can walk out the door with it.
EMILY: OK.
BRADY HARAN: Or I will put that on eBay, and let all the
people who watch my videos decide what they want to pay
for that piece of paper.
And all the money raised will go to you
guys to split in half.
DANNY: Half.
EMILY: Don't.
BRADY HARAN: What do you want?
Do you want four pounds each in your pocket now, or do you
want the people who watch my videos to decide?
EMILY: How long will the--
how long will it go on for?
BRADY HARAN: One week.
Seven days I'll have to bid.
Seven days from when the video goes on.
EMILY: What do you reckon then?
It can't hurt.
DANNY: I reckon eBay.
EMILY: Should go for eBay.
DANNY: Yeah.
EMILY: OK.
Yep.
BRADY HARAN: All right, there you go.
So there you go, everyone.
They could've taken four pounds each right now, but
they're going to let you decide how much they get.
So that piece of paper is going to be on eBay, and
whatever's raised goes to these guys.
DANNY: Ugh.
BRADY HARAN: Do you think you made a good decision?
EMILY: Yeah.
DANNY: Yeah.
BRADY HARAN: So the eBay link is in the video description,
and will be for one week.
And if you're curious about what we did with that
Numberetti after we filmed with it, there's
another link for you.