Kari Sibile, age 9, of North Branch, Minn., for her question:

WHAT IS A GOOGOLPLEX?

In mathematics, you will discover, there are a number of interesting names for numbers. One such name is "googol." It almost looks as if it were a typographical error.

A googol is the number one followed by a hundred zeros. It is also written as the number 10 followed by a smaller sized 100.

A googolplex is an even larger number than a googol. It is 10 to the googol power, or 10 multiplied by itself a googol number of times.

The term "googol" was introduced to the world of higher mathematics by the American mathematician Edward Kasner. His 9 year old nephew first used it.