Huge Numbers

“Imagine if the biggest number you had a symbol for was 1,000,000. In ancient Egypt, anything bigger broke maths.

“Still today, writing down some numbers is beyond us: try it with all the zeroes in a googolplex, or an outrageous alien number like TREE(3). Even harnessing every particle in the universe, you wouldn’t come close. But that hasn’t stopped us from hunting down these mind-bendingly big numbers and studying them.

“In Huge Numbers, mathematician Richard Elwes shows how counting larger and larger numbers has shaped human thought. Whether they are recorded with notches carved on a tally stick, beads on an abacus, or electrical signals carrying binary code, numbers are endlessly expressive and versatile. This rich vocabulary allows us to test the limits of mathematics over and over, breaking it down and putting it back together again.

“Taking us on a tour that spans continents and millennia, from the Mayan calendar to today’s chatbots, Richard Elwes reveals that huge numbers are everywhere, if you know where to look. Discover how they have expanded our horizons and powered our modern world.”

My book Huge Numbers will be published by Basic Books in April 2026, and will also be available as an e-book and audiobook. Below are the covers for the US and UK editions. A Korean edition, published by Book21 is also in preparation.

Reviews

“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