Worlds Biggest Gear Reduction Visualizes the Number Googol, 1 with a Hundred Zeros

Daniel de Bruin made the impressive machine to celebrate being 1 billion seconds old.
Loukia Papadopoulos

Artist Daniel de Bruin made the world's biggest gear reduction for a very specific purpose: to visualize the number googol, 1 with a hundred zeros.

"On March 1, 2020, at 14:52 I was exactly 1 billion seconds old. To celebrate, I build this machine that visualizes the number googol. That's a 1 with a hundred zeros. A number that's bigger than the atoms in the known universe. This machine has a gear reduction of 1 to 10 a hundred times. In order to get the last gear to turn once you'll need to spin the first one a googol amount around. Or better said you'll need more energy than the entire universe has to do that. That boggles my mind," said de Bruin in his video description.

The machine is mesmerizing to watch and a testament to de Bruin's craftsmanship. The video runs an hour-long, but de Bruin claims he can make even longer versions.

"Let me know in the comments if you would like to see a full 24 hours or maybe even a livestream? The version in the video is a prototype and cannot run for too long BUT I'm making a version that could run for years/decades," stated de Bruin.

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