On Wed, Sep 12, 2001 at 06:46:12PM +0100, Martin_J Carter wrote: > Quoth Neal H Walfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2001-09-12 18:19:30: > > >> 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? > > A milliard, IIRC. (Or perhaps that's a thousandth > of a skinhead.) Unfortunately, the UK meeja have > now polluted the English language so thoroughly > that most Brits think a billion is 10^9, and that > "hacker" == "vermin" -- but that's a rant for another > day.
As an English English teacher, I've been watching this degeneration for thirty years. I don't think anyone ever really said 'milliard' - it was always 'thousand million' in my experience, 'milliard' was just continental. And I have the feeling that it was arch-blockhead Margaret Thatcher with her famous b-b-billion that turned the tide - or perhaps just dealt the final blow - in the battle. The derogatory use of 'hacker', by the way, is international. > > > And further more, is 10^15 a > >trillion (in the British system)? > > Nope, a real trillion is 10^18. Not sure what 10^15 is, as > I'm away from my dictionaries .... Any more literate Brits > out there? > > > > MaJoC > ---- > Dr M J Carter > Physics and Astronomy > University of Nottingham > E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >
