I know they are rip-offs of those ‘philosopher football’ shirts that clever
people who wanted to reinvent themselves as David Baddiel wore at
college… but physicists are cooler, and have better numbers*.
I have to figure out how to manufacture them… ready for summer!
Midfield general Carl Sagan and plenty of room at the bottom for Team captain, Richard Feynman
(* a blackbeltjones no-prize for anyone who knows the significance of each player’s team number in each case…)
Sagan = googol
Feynman = alpha
No, a googol is 10^100.
10^88 is something else .. perhaps the number of atoms in the universe. Doing a google for “Carl Sagan” and “88” turns up a few extra things … like an “88 pound solar sail model” and “88 visible constellations”.
Feynman and (1/)137 is explained here: http://www.scs-intl.com/online/frameload.htm?/online/137.htm (it was also discussed in QED and probably mentioned in his other books as well).
I don’t know the 10^88 connection, but I’m pretty sure the standard model give 10^79 for the number of particles (not atoms) in the universe (google … google … OK, I’m wrong: 10^88 it is).
what about google^google?
that’s sagan’s number, isn’t it?