Google's math sense of humor

Saturday 1 May 2004

Stories like this one mention that Google is raising $2.7 billion in its much-discussed IPO. What they don't mention is that they are actually raising a more precise amount: $2,718,281,828. Recognize the number? It's a billion times e, the base of natural logarithms!

tagged: google, business, math» 5 reactions

Comments

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Ken Hirsch 8:56 PM on 1 May 2004

John Quiggin tried to estimate how much Google is worth, if investers were to value it rationally, but Alex Tabbarok points out that Google is aiming for an irrational value.

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Buzz Andersen 5:33 AM on 2 May 2004

And, as others have observed, an irrational number :-).

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Matt 10:57 AM on 3 May 2004

If they had wanted a rational number/amount they would have chosen $2,147,483,648 (2^31)

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Peter Bengtsson 6:09 AM on 8 May 2004

I think this is fantastic news. Did you recognize it yourself Ned or did you get a hint?

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Ned Batchelder 7:17 AM on 8 May 2004

I'd love to say that I had that I picked it out myself. The fact is, I am not financially savvy enough to have been poring over the filings to have seen the number in the first place!

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