Coming soon:
Huge Numbers

Basic Books, April 2026

“Humanity has always been entranced by big numbers — the bigger the better. This fascinating exploration of the giants of the mathematical world is clear, informative, and immensely readable. Wonderful!”

– Ian Stewart

“A charming tour through the realm of the very, very, very numerous, from the ancient world through the distant future.” 

– Jordan Ellenberg

“Elwes provides a phenomenal scenic tour of googology (the study of huge numbers), covering everything from ancient Mayan and Babylonian numeral systems to the scale of the universe to the dizzyingly fast-growing functions of mathematical logic. I wish I had written this book.”

– Scott Aaronson

Dr Richard Elwes is a writer and Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Leeds in the UK.

YouTube playlist of Richard on Numberphile.

Blog Archive

  • Schelling Segregation (Part 2)

    [Update June 2015: since I rebooted my site, the wallpaper uses a design which emerged from work George Barmpalias, I, and Andy Lewis-Pye did together on Schelling’s model of racial segregation. This post describes our…

  • Schelling Segregation (Part 1)

    Here’s a question: When a city contains people of different races, segregation often occurs: sizeable parts of town largely inhabited by people of one race. But when asked what sort of neighbourhood they would…

  • Twin Prime Day! (Or why theorems in analytic number theory are like buses)

      Yesterday, two – yes two! – dramatic developments in the theory of prime numbers were announced. Both are – if correct – major theorems in their own right. Both can also be seen…

  • Chaotic Fishponds and Mirror Universes

    I have a new book out! Chaotic Fishponds and Mirror Universes is published by Quercus and is available now as a paperback or e-book. My intention is to show how mathematics is essential to…

  • Euler’s Totient Theorem

    In honour of Leonhard Euler’s 306th birthday (and also to celebrate my finally having figured out how to use Mathjax on my blog[1]) I thought I’d have a quick look at one of his…

  • A rhopalic sentence

    A rhopalic sentence is one in which each word is longer (usually by exactly one letter) than the last. Here’s my effort: I am not very happy around strange abstract paintings, preferring portraiture; contemporary…

  • The Power of Spin

    A dialogue: A. Imagine that you could lift up into the air, and soar through the sky, just by gently fluttering your arms. B. Yes, I’ve dreams like that. Lovely. A. Where would you…

  • The Maths that Makes the Modern World

    I was invited to give this year’s WP Milne lecture at Leeds Festival of Science. Professor Milne was a maths teacher at Clifton College, before going on to become the head of Leeds University’s…

  • The Will Rogers Phenomenon

    “When the Okies left Oklahoma and moved to California, they raised the average intelligence level in both states.” – Will Rogers In statistics, the Will Rogers Phenomenon, named after the 1920s comedian who made…