D. James Kennedy, math whiz

D. James Kennedy was a right-wing televangelist who died last month at the age of 76. The Fort Lauderdale-based preacher was known for his conservative political views and his claim that the teaching of evolution caused the Holocaust. When Kennedy made a documentary espousing the latter view, a scientist who was quoted in the show later repudiated it, saying he had no idea Kennedy was going to misuse his quotes to advance this view.

Even after his death, Kennedy's legacy of ignorance lives on in his writings. It seems Kennedy wrote a book on something or other, a text that's now used as a basis for science or math curricula in religious-affiliated schools. A website for a graduate-level class at one conservative Christian college provides some of Kennedy's "facts" to use as teaching materials for children.

According to Kennedy's writings, scientists have determined that providing a single protein molecule by chance combination would take 10 ^ 262 (10 raised to the power of 262) years. I don't know if that's true or not (because it's not like my local school system had such a great science curriculum). But Kennedy also claims that writing out the number 10 ^ 262 would take up enough paper to fill the entire universe.

Let's test this claim. Even if you have high-speed, you may want to disconnect now, because this number is so big that this entry won't be finished loading until after the sun expands and engulfs the Earth. Here's 10 ^ 262:

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000

Now that the whole solar system is nothing but vapor, that's 10 ^ 262.

I would have known this when I was 6! But Kennedy, a man who supposedly had a Ph.D., not only didn't know this but expected schools to teach that 10 ^ 262 couldn't be printed in a space smaller than the known universe. Maybe conservatives' definition of the known universe is the vacuum between their ears. Conservatives don't get out much.

Or maybe this is just more of Bush's "fuzzy math."

(Source: http://tinyfrog.wordpress.com/2007/09/16/10262-is-an-unwritable-number)