Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: DrDick on 13/04/2007 17:15:21
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OK, my turn for a question. I learned a long time ago that the word billion has different meanings on the two sides of the pond. In the US, a billion is a thousand million, while in the UK (and other countries?) a billion is a million million.
Given this, what about other "-illion" words, like trillion, quadrillion, etc.?
Here are the US meanings (and I know, the commas are an Americanism, too):
million = 1,000,000 = 10^6
billion = 1,000,000,000 = 10^9
trillion = 1,000,000,000,000 = 10^12
quadrillion = 1,000,000,000,000,000 = 10^15
So, what are the UK meanings?
Dick
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Hello DrDick,
I know there is a wiki entry that explains the ambiguities between the two versions..I'll try and find it if you wish...but I think having someone post the answer would be better....
Great question...great to see you.
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Billion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Billion may mean:
Either of two numbers (see long and short scales for more detail):
1,000,000,000 (one thousand million; 10^9) - increasingly common meaning in English-language usage
1,000,000,000,000 (one million million; 10^12) - increasingly rare meaning in English-language usage; standard meaning in many other languages
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Trillion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Trillion may mean either of the two numbers (see long and short scales for more detail):
1,000,000,000,000 (one million million; 1012) - increasingly common meaning in English language usage.
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (one million million million; 1018) - increasingly rare meaning in English language usage
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Quadrillion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quadrillion may mean either of the two numbers (see long and short scales for more detail):
1,000,000,000,000,000 (one thousand trillion; 1015) - increasingly common meaning in English language usage
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1024) - increasingly rare meaning in English language usage
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OK, I get it. So each new word is a million of the former one.
1 billion = 1 million million
1 trillion = 1 million billion
1 quadrillion = 1 million trillion
etc.
(in Queen's English usage, anyway)
Thanks,
Dick
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Yup. Your Welcome [:D] Wikipedia is so handy lol
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Guess again...
The Bank of England adopted the '1000 Million = 1 Billion' American definition about twenty years ago, and in practice, everyone else followed suit. Whenever you hear someone talk about a Billion Pounds or a Billion People this is the definition they are using.
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If anyone's interested the English word for 10^9 is milliard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milliard
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A milliard. What's the difference between that and a billion?
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According to this site
http://www.solfire.com/scrabble/
The difference between a milliard and a billion is 2 points if you are playing scrabble.
The word milliard has the advantage that nobody thinks it means 10^12 but it also has the disadvantage that practically nobody knows what it does mean.
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Guess again...
The Bank of England adopted the '1000 Million = 1 Billion' American definition about twenty years ago, and in practice, everyone else followed suit. Whenever you hear someone talk about a Billion Pounds or a Billion People this is the definition they are using.
The problem remains that this has not been addopted by other languages, at least not in Europe ! There is more logic in billion being "one million to the second power", trillion "one billion to the third power" and so on.
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this has not been addopted by other languages, at least not in Europe
Though strangely, both systems were invented by the French!
I agree that sticking with powers of a million might be more logical - but languages develop through common usageand not always in a logical manner. Personally, I think a system based on powers of a 1000 is more userful in the real world; it's no more ilogical than calling our 9th month September, our 10th October and so on.