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From: bs@faron.UUCP (Robert D. Silverman)
Newsgroups: net.arch
Subject: Re: VERY LARGE main memories: crypt
Message-ID: <645@faron.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Sep-86 10:12:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: faron.645
Posted: Mon Sep 15 10:12:45 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Sep-86 05:54:44 EDT
References: <1178@bu-cs.bu-cs.BU.EDU> <1087@ihwpt.UUCP> <553@astroatc.UUCP> <1124@tekig5.UUCP> <1126@tekig5.UUCP>
Organization: The MITRE Coporation, Bedford, MA
Lines: 24

> >      Try 10^40 electrons in 100 qubic kilometers of water.  You can do the
> > math.  Sorry to nitpick but I think you are only  by a hunderd or two hunderd
> > orders of magnitude.  You must think the universe is a very small place! 
> > 
> >                              Wayne Knapp
> 
> Better fix my mistakes before I'm flamed:
> 
>      Try 10^40 electrons in 100 cubic kilometers of water.  You can do the
> math.  Sorry to nitpick but I think you are only off by a hunderd or two hunderd
> orders of magnitude.  You must think the universe is a very small place! 
>   
>                                Wayne Knapp

I'm not going to nitpick your spelling because it's irrelevent to the discussion
Currently, cosmologists are still debating over whether the universe is open
or closed. There are quite good estimates on a LOWER bound for the mass of the
universe. If the mass is actually TWICE the current known lower bound then
the universe IS closed. The point of all this is that the known mass can be
used to get an estimate on the number of atoms in the universe. It is something
like 10^78 or 10^79. There are therefore at least that number of electrons.

Reference: 
"Red Giants and White Dwarfs", can't remember author's name but it begins with a'J'. Possibly Jastrow?