2001-10-22 The European system does correspond to the SI prefixes.
1 mega = 1 million 1 giga = 1 milliard 1 tera = 1 billion 1 peta = 1 billiard 1 exa = 1 trillion 1 zetta = 1 trilliard 1 yotta = 1 quadrillion No matter how you look at it the present European system is better. John ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Wade VMS Systems" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, 2001-10-22 06:44 Subject: [USMA:15797] enumerations in American english > >justed wanted to know this curiosity in AE: > > > >in britian an germany whe can 10^9 Milliard(e) you call it billion, why? > >in germany billion means 10^12. > > This is one of the areas that I think the Americans got it right. Whereas > the billion here used to mean 1 million million, it has gradually become to > mean 1 thousand million. > > Consider the series ten, hundred, thousand, million, billion. It increases > tenfold up to 1 thousand, then increases by factors of 10^3. This corresponds > to SI prefixes which go up tenfold up to kilo, and 10^3 jumps thereafter. > The same goes on the other end for tenths, hundredths, thousandths etc. > > A much better fit to SI than having each as the square of the previous (e.g. > 1 million = 1 thousand x 1 thousand, but 1 billion = 1 million x 1 million). > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > Tom Wade, EuroKom | E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (all domain mailers). > Dale House | X400: g=tom;s=wade;o=eurokom;p=eurokom;a=eirmail400;c=ie > 30, Dale Road | Tel: +353 (1) 278-7878 > Stillorgan | Fax: +353 (1) 278-7879 > Co Dublin | Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer > Ireland | Tip: "Friends don't let friends do Unix !" >
