Really Big Numbers

Really Big Numbers is the American Mathematical Society's first book for children, written and illustrated by the mathematician Richard Evan Schwartz. Starting from small, easily observable quantities, the book builds steadily toward genuinely enormous numbers such as a nonillion, a tredecillion, a googol, and values too large to have names, using everyday comparisons, for example the number of basketballs needed to cover New York City, to make their scale concrete. Schwartz mixes elementary ideas with mathematical content that will be new even to many adult readers, and the pages are illustrated throughout with colourful drawings. The AMS published the softcover edition in 2014; it runs 192 pages, and the title was named a 2015 Mathical Book Prize winner, with the publisher recommending it for ages six and up.