On 6 Nov 2010 at 18:29, Rick Froman wrote: > I know there is a discrepancy between American and British accounting for > billions but, in the system native > to Harvard U. (and as announced on the linked page below), Harvard has a > $27.6B endowment. .
This has always been a source of confusion for me, but at last Wikipedia appears to have sorted me out (see entry under "long and short scales"). Britain, the USA, Canada and most English-speaking countries are all on the same page nowadays, in which 1 billion = 1 followed by nine zeros. This is the "short scale". The only exception seems to be Quebec (isn't it always) where in French 1 billion = 1 followed by 12 zeros (the "long scale"). I didn't know that. So I guess if you win a billion dollars in a lottery up here, you should ask for it in French. Stephen. -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca --------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=6288 or send a blank email to leave-6288-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
