Just how big is it?

[jlittle]

I was astonished! Me thinks you will be to!!

Not if you're a computer programmer, familiar with the approximation 2^10 ≈ 10^3, so 2^100 ≈ 10^30. You're given 500 sheets = 50 mm, so 1000 = 100 mm, so 10^4 = 1 m, thus the pile is 10^26 m. A lot. A light year ≈ 10^16 m, our galaxy 100,000 ly, so my answer was about 10^5 times the size of the Milky Way (5 being 26 - 16 - 5).

Regards, John Little

[Snowhog]

Reminds me of the last piece of pie or cake. No one wants to take the last peace so you cut it in half and take half. The next person cuts the remainder in half and so on until the last crumb is cut in half. Well, you folks may not have this hang up but...

I like pie. I don't mean the 3.1459...
Ken

And theoretically, if you stand at x distance from a wall, and walk only half the distance towards it, stopping, then again walking half the distance, theoretically, you'll never reach the wall!

[Snowhog]

Yup.

And, if you could save a penny on day 1, and double that amount each day for just one full month (31 days), you'd have $21,474,836.48!!

[lcorken]

Reminds me of the last piece of pie or cake. No one wants to take the last peace so you cut it in half and take half. The next person cuts the remainder in half and so on until the last crumb is cut in half. Well, you folks may not have this hang up but...

I like pie. I don't mean the 3.1459...
Ken

[HalationEffect]

Reminds me of the fable of the chess board and the grains of rice: http://www.singularitysymposium.com/...al-growth.html

[Snowhog]

2^100 (Two to the 100th Power)

Read the question and then go and read the 'answer' from start to finish, without jumping to the end. I was astonished! Me thinks you will be to!!