Dear All, In this morning's Melbourne newspaper, 'The Age', there was a front page lead article that referred to 'billion litres' of water. As I read the article, I wondered:
1 Which 'billion' were they using; from England, France, or the USA? 2 What does the word 'billion' mean to the writer, or to most readers? Is anyone able to visualise a 'billion' litres of water? 3 Probably the use of 'billion litres' is simply a dumbing-down of the measuring unit, gigalitres, used in the Melbourne Water Board's technical report, so why didn't the writer simply leave it as as gigalitres? Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia --
