On Wed, Sep 12, 2001 at 01:42:42PM -0400, Buddha Buck wrote: > At 07:19 PM 09-12-2001 +0200, Neal H Walfield wrote: > > > It looks like we're getting confused between the UK billion and the > > American billion. (Apologies to all other countries who use one or the > > other.) > > > > > > American (including Unix) = 10^9 > > > British = 10^12 > > > >What the heck do the British call 10^9? And further more, is 10^15 a > >trillion (in the British system)? > > I'm not British, but I believe the system is: > > American British > 1000 Thousand Thousand > 10^6 Million Million > 10^9 Billion Thousand Million (or a Milliard) > 10^12 Trillion Billion > 10^15 Quadrillion Thousand Billion > 10^18 Quintillion Trillion > 10^21 Sextillion Thousand Trillion > 10^24 Septillion Quadrillion > etc.
which actually makes more sense than the american system -- in the american system, a "bi-illion" is not two of anything that a "mono-illion" is one of. however, in the british system, think of a million as a factor of 10^6 -- then a "bi-illion" is simply two of the factors, or 10^12 (and so on with a "tri-illion" - 10^18) the american system is a wacky off-by-one kinda of thing, where a "million" is *two* factors of 10^3, a "billion" is *three* of these factors, a "trillion" *four*, and so on. at least the SI prefixes are unchanged in the british system! --Rob -- /-------------------------------------------------------------\ | "If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane" | | --Jimmy Buffett, | | "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" | \-------------------------------------------------------------/
