3102: Reading a Big Number

2025-06-13T20:40:10Z

2600:1003:B06F:38F3:1678:5324:1484:5A94: Added potential real world sources for a number like this

{{comic
| number = 3102
| date = June 13, 2025
| title = Reading a Big Number
| image = reading_a_big_number_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x438px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = [desperately] Maybe this is from some country where they use commas as decimal points, and also as digit separators after the decimal, and also use random other characters for decoration???
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently by A Number So Big It Glitches Out. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

this comic expresses [[Randall]]'s frustration when reading large numbers. it starts with normal digits and commas you would find in a large number, but gradually becomes more and more chaotic.
{| class="wikitable"
! Thought !! Explanation
|-
| 54! Great! I know that number. Solid start. || A simple start
|-
| Oh, a comma and some zeros. Cool. Must be at least 54 thousand. || Underselling how long the number is with the "at least a thousand", but is a fair thought from the POV of not being able to know how long the number is.
|-
| A second comma! I wonder if we're talking population or money. || Excitement from how large the number must be. Money and population are both often measured in millions.
|-
| Yikes! If this is money, it's a lot of money. || Three commas means a number in the billions. Money can be measured in billions, but that's a lot of money even for a government or major corporation.
|-
| Why am I reading this? Whatever this number is, I'm not going to be able to visualize it. || Five commas is a number in the quadrillions. At this point the number is too big for human minds to comprehend.
|-
| All right, either someone made a unit conversion error or this is one of those incomprehensible astronomy numbers. || Astronomy often deals with extremely large numbers due to the incredible scale of the universe. For example, the distance to the Andromeda galaxy in kilometers could be numbered in quintillions. Alternatively, the person calculating the number made a mistake.
|-
| Oh no. Is this a misplaced comma or an extra zero? I guess we'll see if the next group has two zeros or three. If it's two, we can at least hope the digits are right. || Commas are supposed to be placed every three digits, so something is wrong. However, it might simply be that someone moved the comma to the right, meaning that this group has four digits and the next one will have two.
|-
| Oh no. || A second group of four zeroes means it's not a typo. Something is seriously wrong. Note that some countries like [https://www.aceninja.sg/insights/2025/01/01/understanding-chinese-cultural-nuances-numerals China] or [https://www.kanpai-japan.com/learn-japanese/how-to-count-in-japanese Japan] (where 4-digit groupings are common) or [https://www.cuemath.com/numbers/indian-place-value-chart/ India] (which uses a unique 2- and 4-digit mixed system) may use non 3-digit groupings, but not in conjunction with 3 digit groupings.
|-
| What is happening. || Big Numbers are normally rounded, so it's very strange to see a non-zero value this far down in the place values. Also, "54" matches the digits at the start of the number so it could indicate the number was copied incorrectly. The non-zero digits here imply that all of the digits so far, including the zeroes, are {{w|significant figures}}; the number is not only extremely large, but implausibly precise with at least 30 sig figs. By way of comparison, the diameter of the observable universe is about 4.4 × 1026 m, and if that measurement had 30 sigfigs, it would be precise to about half a millimeter.
|-
| Someone messed up real bad. || The arcsecond mark " indicates that this number is an angle or a distance in inches. For an angle, even accounting for how small an arcsecond is (1/3600th of a degree), this angle would be a huge number rotations. As for inches, it would represent a distance much larger than the observable universe, it is also uncommon to use customary units like inches in conjunction with large numbers. Alternatively, this could be "to-the-11th-power", which would make the already extremely large number extremely ridiculously big.
|-
| Someone messed up real bad and I hope it wasn't me. || Numbers normally only use the digits 0-9. The use of letters suggest that this is a hexadecimal number. Angles are not normally expressed in hexadecimal. Hexadecimal is mostly used by computers, so Randall, as a programmer, might be worried that the hexadecimal appearing is his fault. Seeing a long string of unexpected characters may indicate a memory bug, such as a ''{{w|buffer overflow}}''. These bugs can lead to crashes, data corruption and security vulnerabilities, and Randall would rather not be responsible for it.
|-
| (title text) [desperately] Maybe this is from some country where they use commas as decimal points, and also as digit separators after the decimal, and also use random other characters for decoration??? || Since the final number is unreadable and potentially infinite, this implies that Randall has, naturally, made up an explanation instead of trying to figure out what was really happening.
|-
|}

There are a few possible explanations for seeing a number like this appear in a software application. It may have appeared due to an out-of-bounds read operation where the computer tries to interpret unrelated data as text. Another possible explanation is misuse of the C printf function. If strings passed to printf do not contain a terminating null byte, it will go further into memory, again into unrelated data. Or the programmer might have several printf statements back to back, forgetting that printf doesn't add newlines, so all their debug information gets printed on the same line.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

Thought Process While Reading a Big Number

54,000,000,000,000,000,000,0000,0000,054,000"000,00c2ef46 [continuing off the edge of the comic]

[At various points on the number, a line is connected from the number to a note]

[Before first comma] 54! Great! I know that number. Solid start. 
[After first comma] Oh, a comma and some zeros. Cool. Must be at least 54 thousand. 
[After second comma] A second comma! I wonder if we're talking population or money. 
[After third comma] Yikes! If this is money, it's a '''''lot''''' of money. 
[After fifth comma] Why am I reading this? Whatever this number is, I'm not going to be able to visualize it. 
[After sixth comma] All right, either someone made a unit conversion error or this is one of those incomprehensible astronomy numbers. 
[After seventh comma (first group of 4 zeros)] Oh no. Is this a misplaced comma or an extra zero? I guess we'll see if the next group has two zeros or three. If it's two, we can at least hope the digits are right. 
[After eighth comma (second group of 4 zeros)] Oh '''''no'''''. 
[After ninth comma (second 54)] What is happening. 
[By quotation mark] Someone messed up real bad. 
[By mixed alphanumeric numbers] Someone messed up real bad and I hope it wasn't me.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

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3102: Reading a Big Number