What is a billion?

[classical_hero]

Is it 1000 million or million times a million?

 

[holy king]

a green eyed elk.

 

[PhroX]

It should be a million million. Sadly the stupid Americanism of using it as a thousand million has taken over and that's how it's understood these days.

 

[Andvare]

Both Google and Wikipedia are friendly.

Edit: I prefer the short scale, actually, even though my native languages uses the long one. The short scale just seems more logical. A first for those imperial using colonials.

 

[Borachio]

More importantly, what's a vigintillion?

Anyway, a billion what? A billion pounds is a lot. A billion US dollars not quite so much. A billion Zimbabwe dollars is really very little, whether it's a 1000 million or a million million.

Now, a googolplex is getting to be a more seriously interesting large number.

While a googolplex! is just a tinny bit bigger.

 

[LucyDuke]

1,000,000,000

 

[emzie]

Thousand million.

 

[Gigaz]

A billion is ten to the power of nine. A Billion is ten to the power of twelve.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

It's 1/13.7th of the age of the universe in years.

 

[really]

1.000.000.000

 

[Winner]

1.000.000.000.000 in Czech, German, and other sensible languages
1.000.000.000 in English.

 

[Leoreth]

Long scale ftw. Unfortunately my exposure to the short scale has completely destroyed the impact of billion (long scale). When the German media announced that the Eurozone would need "eine Billion Euro" to cover all liabilities of its member countries, I probably wasn't as impressed as I should've been.

 

[strijder20]

The short scale just seems more logical.

Regardless of what it 'seems', the long scale is the more logical one.

The mill- (from thousand - one), bill- (two), trill- (three), quadrill- (four) there stand for the number of times you have to multiply one with 10^6.

In the short scale, however, it makes a 'jump' of 10^6 from one to a million, and then continues in jumps of 10^3. A 'logical' short scale would be
10^0 = one
10^1 = a million
10^2 = a billion
10^3 = a trillion
...

Therefore, a billion should be 1.000.000.000.000.

(Notice that both scales have the 'flaw' of calling 10^3 thousand, which does not fit in the row. Probably because the name for it wasn't invented by mathematicians )

More importantly, what's a vigintillion?

Vigintill- refers to twenty, so

In the long scale, it's 10^(6*20) = 10^120

In the short scale, it's 10^((3*20)+3) = 10^63

 

[Andvare]

Regardless of what it 'seems', the long scale is the more logical one.

The mill- (from thousand - one), bill- (two), trill- (three), quadrill- (four) there stand for the number of times you have to multiply one with 10^6.

In the short scale, however, it makes a 'jump' of 10^6 from one to a million, and then continues in jumps of 10^3. A 'logical' short scale would be
10^0 = one
10^1 = a million
10^2 = a billion
10^3 = a trillion
...

Therefore, a billion should be 1.000.000.000.000.

(Notice that both scales have the 'flaw' of calling 10^3 thousand, which does not fit in the row. Probably because the name for it wasn't invented by mathematicians )



Vigintill- refers to twenty, so

In the long scale, it's 10^(6*20) = 10^120

In the short scale, it's 10^((3*20)+3) = 10^63

I refer you to my link.

Not only does the short list not bother with that whole silly -ard ending, the logic is pure (after million):

Bi (2) is 1,000×1,000^2
Tri (3) is 1,000×1,000^3

And so on and so forth.

The long list skips each -ard ending in its logic progression.

 

[Lillefix]

Is it 1000 million or million times a million?

It's that time of the year again...

 

[azzaman333]

More than a million, less than a trillion.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I had no fracking clue there was more than one definition of a billion and two different counting systems. Dumbfounded

 

[classical_hero]

It's that time of the year again...

This popped up first in the Members photo thread, so I thought it was better to remove it from there and start a new thread.

 

[GenMarshall]

This may relate only to a trillion, but the concept is similar.


Link to video.

 

[Leoreth]

I refer you to my link.

Not only does the short list not bother with that whole silly -ard ending, the logic is pure (after million):

Bi (2) is 1,000×1,000^2
Tri (3) is 1,000×1,000^3

And so on and so forth.

The long list skips each -ard ending in its logic progression.

Does it?

Billion (2) is 1,000,000^2
Trillion (3) is 1,000,000^3
Quadrillion (4) is 1,000,000^4

Skips the arbitrary factor of 1,000 in every step.

The -ard endings are just convenient ways to say thousand [...]. Thousand millions = one milliard etc. So your only objection is the "gut" reaction that -ard forms are silly, which of course is only because you're only familiar with the short scale in the first place.