Poll: One Billion

[d4rkxy13x]

Being in France, un milliard is 1000M, whereas un billion is 1M x 1M

 

[Captain Pancake]

Im british, I always use 1000 million. A million million just seems to unwieldy a number.

 

[GundamSentinel]

short scale:
million = 1000000
billion = 1000000000
trillion = 1000000000000
quadrillion = 1000000000000000
quintillion = 1000000000000000000
sextillion = 1000000000000000000000

long scale:
million = 1000000
milliard = 1000000000
billion = 1000000000000
billiard = 1000000000000000
trillion = 1000000000000000000
trilliard = 1000000000000000000000

Most countries use long scale and personally I prefer it, but only because it has easy words for bigger numbers. There is no other advantage or disadvantage really.

 

[John the Gamer]

I use the European(Yeah) system. Personally I've never used numbers beyond the Trilliard(Sextillion in US/UK system).

Million 1.000.000
milliard 1.000.000.000
Billion 1.000.000.000.000 <--- Name comes from Bi-million
Billiard 1.000.000.000.000.000
Trillion 1.000.000.000.000.000.000 <--- Tri-million
Trilliard 1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000
Quadrillion 1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000 <--- Four-million
etc.
Quingentilliard = 10^3003 = ten with 3003 zero's

That's as far as I go. check it yourselves:

[link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_numbers[/link]
[link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers[/link]

Edit: Btw, Yay for Wikipedia.

Edit-Edit: This poll made me ask myself: How many blocks are in a minecraft world? 8x the earth = probably alot.

 

[Sethzard]

Um... no?
1 Billion = 1,000,000,000
1,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000
1,000,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000,000

So... A better question is, why is UK bad at math?

Probably because we don't do math we do maths.

I've always though of it as 1,000,000,000 I didn't know that there was another way. I assume that that's what the government uses too because otherwise our economy is screwed.

 

[Xyliss]

Um... no?
1 Billion = 1,000,000,000
1,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000
1,000,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000,000

So... A better question is, why is UK bad at math?

So I assume your American. We're not bad at maths, we just have different definitions. Not that either one is more correct (from what I can gather), it just depends who you're talking to. Personally I (begrudgingly) think the American way seems more logical and is used more than the British version

 

[Nouw]

A billion? How petty.

I require [i/]one hundred billion![/i]

I see your one hundred billion and raise you quatrillion!

To be honest I just learnt it as 1,000,000,000.

 

[Gudrests]

Um... no?
1 Billion = 1,000,000,000
1,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000
1,000,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000,000

So... A better question is, why is UK bad at math?

yepp...thats math right there. I dont know how this can be confusing. Maybe they see 1000 X does not mean multiply

 

[Torrasque]

Um... no?
1 Billion = 1,000,000,000
1,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000
1,000,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000,000

So... A better question is, why is UK bad at math?

So I assume your American. We're not bad at maths, we just have different definitions. Not that either one is more correct (from what I can gather), it just depends who you're talking to. Personally I (begrudgingly) think the American way seems more logical and is used more than the British version

Swing and a miss.
Personally, I think a billion is 1,000,000,000, which is 1,000 x 1,000,000
No matter how you say it, you can't argue with maths.
I wanna meet the person that coined "a billion is a million millions" and slap them.
It might just be an expression, basically saying "HOLY SHIT A BILLION IS ALOT!", but it is still retarded.

Like saying:
"The UK version is a hundred hundreds is a thousand"
"The US version is ten hundreds is a thousand"
(if you are unclear by this definition, it is the exact same as this thread's original post, it is just reduced)

The difference between those two is simple.
One can be seen as an expression, meaning "wow, that is a lot", or just retarded pseudo-math
The other can be seen as the definition of what that number is.

 

[theheroofaction]

a billion is this big
1,000,000,000
to put that in perspective the population of earth is estimated between 7,000,000,000 and 8,000,000,000.

 

[Rockchimp69]

So recently I have learnt that the UK and the US have diffrent defintions of 1 Billion.

In the UK, one billion is one million x million

In the US, one billion is 1000 x Million

I live in England and ive always thought of it as 1000 x M because it made sense to me.
Just wondering whats your view on one billion and did you know there were variations?

Having nothing inbetween one million and a million million is stupid.
I think of it as 1000 million.

 

[Vykrel]

Um... no?
1 Billion = 1,000,000,000
1,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000
1,000,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000,000

So... A better question is, why is UK bad at math?

yeaaah... i was thinking the same thing. and someone said what, 12 zeros? no, its only 9.

 

[Naturality]

The UK USED to use that system, but we all moved over many moons ago.

I've got books from the '70s that point out the distinction, but in any literature since then it's just assumed to be 10^9.

 

[Josho18]

In my Country there is:
One: 1.
Houndred: 100
Thousand: 1.000
Million: 1.000.000
Milliard: 1.000.000.000
Billion: 1.000.000.000.000
Billiard: 1.000.000.000.000.000
Trillion: 1.000.000.000.000.000.000
Trilliard: 1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000
Kvadrillion: 1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000
Kvadrilliard:1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000
And well you get the idea, every part got two instead of the American single.

 

[coldshadow]

wait, then what is a trillion? quadrillion? and so forth?

 

[shiajun]

I use the European(Yeah) system. Personally I've never used numbers beyond the Trilliard(Sextillion in US/UK system).

Million 1.000.000
milliard 1.000.000.000
Billion 1.000.000.000.000 <--- Name comes from Bi-million
Billiard 1.000.000.000.000.000
Trillion 1.000.000.000.000.000.000 <--- Tri-million
Trilliard 1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000
Quadrillion 1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000 <--- Four-million
etc.
Quingentilliard = 10^3003 = ten with 3003 zero's

That's as far as I go. check it yourselves:

[link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_numbers[/link]
[link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers[/link]

Edit: Btw, Yay for Wikipedia.

Thank you!! I was about to post this but it's not needed now. A billion is a million millions. Calling a 1000 millions a billion is another US numbering quirk that clashes with the rest of the world just as not using the metric system. UK's ambiguity in changing units seems to reflect in that some UK residents use either 10^9 or 10^12 for a billion.

 

[ChocoFace]

12 zeroes for a billion? that's messed up.
1000 x million is the right way, of course.

It is messed up, my friend and I had an interesting conversation... until we realised we were working with 2 different numbers
And isn't 12 zeros a trillion?

It is, that's why it's messed up to call it billion.

 

[strobe]

1 with a hundred zeroes is called Googol, 10[sup]100[/sup]. It's fairly big and has a silly name.
10 to the power of Googol is called Googolplex, 10[sup]googol[/sup]. It's quite big, but nothing particularly exceptional. Mostly famous because it has a lot of zeroes and a funny name.

There are many other big and fancy numbers, but I don't think they deal with so many zeroes in one place. Which a Billion has 9 of.

OT: I'm British and I'm doing a Maths degree. In the past I've had the inclination to look at maths stuff on Wikipedia; stuff like this. Anyone of you making inane comments here also could have done but here's the summary: 1x10[sup]9[/sup] is a billion in standard form according to the international system (SI) of units; the antiquated definition of 10[sup]12[/sup] as a billion is unused (and if you asked most people my age (20), definitely younger, they probably wouldn't know it). There was the word milliard for 10[sup]9[/sup] and billiard for 10[sup]15[/sup].

(should math even HAVE a language?)

Maths is a language.

I shorten the name of the subject of mathematics to maths. I do Maths not English.

 

[KiKiweaky]

Its pretty logical having it at 1000 X 1,000,000 as you go up by three zero's a million is 10^6 a billion is 10^9 or another 3 zeros.

 

[Valkyrie101]

Um... no?
1 Billion = 1,000,000,000
1,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000
1,000,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000,000

So... A better question is, why is UK bad at math?

It isn't. The UK billion has 12 zeroes, rather than the American 9. In reality, though, we use the US version like everyone else, and the old UK billion has become redundant.