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Huge Numbers: A Story of Counting Ambitiously
What if, every time you wanted to write down 1,000,000, you had to draw a picture of a god? And what if that number were the biggest you had a symbol for? In ancient Egypt, those were the rules: anything bigger broke maths.
Writing down some numbers is still beyond us today: try it with all the zeroes in a googolplex, or an outrageous alien number like FISH 7. 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 and Numberphile presenter Richard Elwes shows how counting has shaped human thought. Whether recorded with notches carved on a tally stick, beads on an abacus, or electrical signals carrying binary code, it allows us to test the limits of mathematics over and over, breaking it down and putting it back together again.
Come on a fascinating tour that spans continents and millennia, from the Mayan calendar to today’s chatbots. You’ll see that huge numbers are everywhere, expanding our horizons and powering our modern world.
Writing down some numbers is still beyond us today: try it with all the zeroes in a googolplex, or an outrageous alien number like FISH 7. 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 and Numberphile presenter Richard Elwes shows how counting has shaped human thought. Whether recorded with notches carved on a tally stick, beads on an abacus, or electrical signals carrying binary code, it allows us to test the limits of mathematics over and over, breaking it down and putting it back together again.
Come on a fascinating tour that spans continents and millennia, from the Mayan calendar to today’s chatbots. You’ll see that huge numbers are everywhere, expanding our horizons and powering our modern world.
368 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 27, 2026
This is such a unique and original book. It is also a fascinating read. It is more then it seems.
This is not just a math book. As per the title, the book is indeed focused on huge numbers, but it covers a lot more territory. There is the history of counting and number systems. It is story of numerical systems of civilizations as diverse as China, the Mayans, Mesopotamia, Europe, as well as lesser-known cultures is. The book covers the psychology and the evolutionary biology of counting, As I mentioned, though the author refers to gargantuan numbers throughout the work, theses giant numbers are mostly explored in the last chapters.
As for huge numbers themselves, the work delves into finite numbers that are enormous. One can always come up with a larger and larger numbers, but mathematicians usually concentrate on numbers used in proofs or other scientific endeavors. Some of these numbers are so big that if one were to write them down in actual digits, the numerals would not fit into the observable universe. These numbers are incomprehensible.
I have little math background. I have not even been interested in math until lately. However, for the past few months I have been watching the YouTube Channel “Numberphile,” where Elwes is a frequent contributor. With that in mind, I found this book mostly understandable and aimed at the layperson. Though there were some fairly big chunks that I did not understand, I tried to grasp the big picture.
This will obviously appeal to people interested in math. But it is so rich that anyone interested in history, culture, psychology, etc. will get a lot out of this. The book is a great read for curious people.
This is not just a math book. As per the title, the book is indeed focused on huge numbers, but it covers a lot more territory. There is the history of counting and number systems. It is story of numerical systems of civilizations as diverse as China, the Mayans, Mesopotamia, Europe, as well as lesser-known cultures is. The book covers the psychology and the evolutionary biology of counting, As I mentioned, though the author refers to gargantuan numbers throughout the work, theses giant numbers are mostly explored in the last chapters.
As for huge numbers themselves, the work delves into finite numbers that are enormous. One can always come up with a larger and larger numbers, but mathematicians usually concentrate on numbers used in proofs or other scientific endeavors. Some of these numbers are so big that if one were to write them down in actual digits, the numerals would not fit into the observable universe. These numbers are incomprehensible.
I have little math background. I have not even been interested in math until lately. However, for the past few months I have been watching the YouTube Channel “Numberphile,” where Elwes is a frequent contributor. With that in mind, I found this book mostly understandable and aimed at the layperson. Though there were some fairly big chunks that I did not understand, I tried to grasp the big picture.
This will obviously appeal to people interested in math. But it is so rich that anyone interested in history, culture, psychology, etc. will get a lot out of this. The book is a great read for curious people.
Read
August 1, 2026Huge Numbers: A Story of Counting Ambitiously, from 4 1/2 to Fish 7Richard Elwes
When I picked up Huge Numbers, I genuinely thought it would be full of formulas, theories, and mathematical proofs. But it turned out to be something completely different, and honestly, much more interesting.
This book isn't really about solving maths problems. It's about how humans learned to count, why numbers became so important, and how different civilizations came up with their own ways of understanding them. I never expected a book about numbers to be so connected with history, culture, and everyday life.
One of my favourite parts was learning that counting wasn't always something people naturally knew how to do. It was a skill that developed over time. The chapters on tally marks, early counting methods, and why standardized numbers became necessary were fascinating. It made me look at something as basic as counting in a completely different way.
I also loved reading about ancient civilizations like Mesopotamia, India, and China, and seeing how differently each of them approached numbers. The sections on Hindu-Arabic numerals and the experiments mentioned throughout the book were some of the most interesting parts for me because they showed how much thought and effort went into ideas we now take for granted.
What surprised me the most was how the book connected mathematics with history, mythology, and even superstitions. The reference to the Ramayana, where someone is sent to count Rama's army, was completely unexpected. It was such a simple example, but it showed how numbers have always been a part of stories and everyday life. I also enjoyed reading about how the beliefs around certain numbers change from one culture to another.
The writing is simple, engaging, and full of facts that make you stop for a second and think, "I never knew that." Even if you aren't someone who enjoys mathematics, I think you'll still appreciate this book because it focuses more on the story behind numbers than on calculations.
If you're someone who's naturally curious and likes learning how everyday things came to be, I would definitely recommend this book. It made me realize that numbers are much more than what we learn in school. They have shaped history, trade, science, and the way civilizations grew over time.
When I picked up Huge Numbers, I genuinely thought it would be full of formulas, theories, and mathematical proofs. But it turned out to be something completely different, and honestly, much more interesting.
This book isn't really about solving maths problems. It's about how humans learned to count, why numbers became so important, and how different civilizations came up with their own ways of understanding them. I never expected a book about numbers to be so connected with history, culture, and everyday life.
One of my favourite parts was learning that counting wasn't always something people naturally knew how to do. It was a skill that developed over time. The chapters on tally marks, early counting methods, and why standardized numbers became necessary were fascinating. It made me look at something as basic as counting in a completely different way.
I also loved reading about ancient civilizations like Mesopotamia, India, and China, and seeing how differently each of them approached numbers. The sections on Hindu-Arabic numerals and the experiments mentioned throughout the book were some of the most interesting parts for me because they showed how much thought and effort went into ideas we now take for granted.
What surprised me the most was how the book connected mathematics with history, mythology, and even superstitions. The reference to the Ramayana, where someone is sent to count Rama's army, was completely unexpected. It was such a simple example, but it showed how numbers have always been a part of stories and everyday life. I also enjoyed reading about how the beliefs around certain numbers change from one culture to another.
The writing is simple, engaging, and full of facts that make you stop for a second and think, "I never knew that." Even if you aren't someone who enjoys mathematics, I think you'll still appreciate this book because it focuses more on the story behind numbers than on calculations.
If you're someone who's naturally curious and likes learning how everyday things came to be, I would definitely recommend this book. It made me realize that numbers are much more than what we learn in school. They have shaped history, trade, science, and the way civilizations grew over time.
July 3, 2026
Huge Numbers by Richard Elwes is intended to be a fun little jaunt down mathematical lane. The book is divided into three parts: the first I loved, the second I liked, the third... meh, not so much.
The first part goes into the history and theory of numbers. It talks of things like the brain science of counting, if animals count, and how the Hindi numeral system (that many mistakenly call Arabic) came to dominate over Roman, Egyptian, Babylonian (base 60), and Mayan number systems.
The second part goes into practical applications of huge numbers. We have Archimedes' sand reckoner, cosmology in regards to space and time, and the number of computational outcomes in games like Chess and Go! and how AI is crunching those numbers to beat humans.
The third part gets a bit repetitive. It is supposed to be dealing with googology (the study of big numbers) but really deals with exponents. It basically is chapter after chapter of "oh look, mathematician x has developed exponential equation y that has an even greater rate of increase than anyone else ever thought of." Honestly, the book would have been better off just writing the first two parts and crunching part three into an Appendix or two. I would have also enjoyed a bit more on the games various mathematicians and philosophers play with infinity. I know it technically doesn't count as a number. But still...
The first part goes into the history and theory of numbers. It talks of things like the brain science of counting, if animals count, and how the Hindi numeral system (that many mistakenly call Arabic) came to dominate over Roman, Egyptian, Babylonian (base 60), and Mayan number systems.
The second part goes into practical applications of huge numbers. We have Archimedes' sand reckoner, cosmology in regards to space and time, and the number of computational outcomes in games like Chess and Go! and how AI is crunching those numbers to beat humans.
The third part gets a bit repetitive. It is supposed to be dealing with googology (the study of big numbers) but really deals with exponents. It basically is chapter after chapter of "oh look, mathematician x has developed exponential equation y that has an even greater rate of increase than anyone else ever thought of." Honestly, the book would have been better off just writing the first two parts and crunching part three into an Appendix or two. I would have also enjoyed a bit more on the games various mathematicians and philosophers play with infinity. I know it technically doesn't count as a number. But still...
August 30, 2026
I admit that the math and numerical concepts were beyond me, so I couldn’t finish the book. The one part of the book I found very interesting was about population increase versus food supply.
Apart from that, the few issues I had with the book were:
The author kept adding the letter “s” to units of measurement when he was describing amounts below 1, such as “0.1 nanometres”, when it should have been “0.1 nanometre”. You wouldn’t say “0.1 feet”, but instead “0.1 foot”. Even though there is no “s” in the plural of “foot”, the idea is the same.
There were also instances of adding a “s” when an amount less than 1 was expressed in scientific notation, such as “10 to the -24 metres” (I couldn’t use the exponential version of -24 in this text box).
A frequent issue with the grammar was the constant non-agreement of a subject and its associated pronoun, e.g.: “…a hiker… they…”. These errors were very distracting.
Apart from that, the few issues I had with the book were:
The author kept adding the letter “s” to units of measurement when he was describing amounts below 1, such as “0.1 nanometres”, when it should have been “0.1 nanometre”. You wouldn’t say “0.1 feet”, but instead “0.1 foot”. Even though there is no “s” in the plural of “foot”, the idea is the same.
There were also instances of adding a “s” when an amount less than 1 was expressed in scientific notation, such as “10 to the -24 metres” (I couldn’t use the exponential version of -24 in this text box).
A frequent issue with the grammar was the constant non-agreement of a subject and its associated pronoun, e.g.: “…a hiker… they…”. These errors were very distracting.
July 1, 2026
Very complex
Though aimed at a general audience (i.e. popular science), I doubt whether someone without an advanced degree in mathematics could understand much of this book. He builds up from high levels of exponenation to numbers that can't be even conceived by the human mind.
Though aimed at a general audience (i.e. popular science), I doubt whether someone without an advanced degree in mathematics could understand much of this book. He builds up from high levels of exponenation to numbers that can't be even conceived by the human mind.
Read
May 26, 2026Work book! Cool stuff
August 12, 2026
A fascinating history of counting that covers much more than just huge numbers. Highest recommendation for anyone that likes history and math.
September 22, 2026
Opens fascinating vistas into a (surprisingly) wide range of human experience—as well as the existentially terrifying realm of the unimaginably large.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews