95 - Googol

So, they've done another programme about Major Charles Ingram, and his appearance on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? I know Chris Tarrant always used to say "It's only easy if you know the answer", but the Major's million pound question was probably the easiest one they've ever had. To remind you, this was the question;

A number one followed by one hundred zeros os known by what name?

A - Googol

B - Megatron

C - Gigabit

D - Nanomole

(Not that I'm bragging or anything, but I'd have got that before the options were announced...)

But, even if you didn't know the answer you could easily have worked it out based on the prefixes of each of the words alone. 

"Mega" refers to something that's a million of a unit.

"Giga" refers to something that's a billion of a unit.

"Nano" refers to somethings that's a billionth of a unit, so anything "nano" must be small, not big. 

So, those three answers could have been ruled out purely based on that premise alone, giving the only possible answer as googol. 

Of course, this isn't even getting to the point that Megatron is the leader of the Decepticons in Transformers, a gigabit is a unit of computer memory, and a nanomole is a fraction (a billionth, who'd'a thunk it...) of a mole (chemistry measurement; not small furry rodent). 

I kind of think at least one of the wrong answers should have been something that didn't have one of these prefixes in it... or at least had one that included a "hecto" prefix; a prefix that means 100 of a unit. 

Anyhow, this water flowed under the bridge a long time ago...

(Actually whilst I'm mentioning the Major, I would recommend all read this book; it's a very interesting read...)