This always reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon from around 1980, that showed
"Billions and billions of Carl Sagans."

--
Jonathan Sherwood
Sr. Science & Technology Press Officer
University of Rochester
585-273-4726


On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 8:18 PM, Eric Scoles <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> #1: There's a story that was often told around Cornell back when I worked
> there in the late '80s, that Sagan was giving a lecture on predicting the
> future. Come question-time, some wise-ass undergrad asks him if there will
> be "billions & billions" of whatever the heck he was talking about.
> As the story goes, Sagan (not missing a beat) immediately responds "you
> know, if you're really forward looking, you should be thinking trillions."
>
> 2010/2/1 Alicia Henn <[email protected]>
>
> Apparently, there is a unit of measurement, proposed humorously, called the
>> Sagan. It is the smallest unit that can be "billions and billions" - 4
>> billion or 2 billions plus 2 billions. But there is a new Sagan unit. now
>> proposed, which I think merits some attention, as he didn't actually say
>> "billions and billions". He did say "billions upon billions", which
>> mathematically, is a whole different kettle of stars.
>>
>>
>> http://blog.circuitmonkey.com/2009/12/25/yet-another-sagan-unit-measurement/
>>
>> One attoSagan person,
>> Alicia
>>
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