Poll: One Billion

[rda_Highlander]

well, that was educational. Never thought of this. In basically every country I know, 1 billion is 1000xMillion, like, Gigabyte - 1000 (1024, I know) Mbs. Well, in countries that have billions anyway.
It goes in threes as far as I understand. 10^3=thousand 10^6=Million 10^9=Billion 10^12=Trillion (not sure about trillion) and so on.

EDIT Gigalion sounds way cooler than Billion, hell yeah.

 

[Tokkobot]

What I would like to know is whose bright idea was it to just remove the name "milliard" from the scale altogether and just replace it with the next larger number name which is billion. It's just a naming scheme in the end but as some have already stated, billion > bi-million > million X million makes more sense. All the other numbers after milliard are screwed too because of this.
Luckily few people ever need such a big numbers in their lives so anything beyond billion/milliard isn't really that big of a deal.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

Wait what...I'm from Britain and my entire maths class and my maths teacher use 1,000,000,000...

Someone's been lying, methinks...well, in London anyway...

 

[Knusper]

I thought we used 1,000,000,000 in the UK and that USA used 1,000,000,000,000.

 

[thylasos]

A million million.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I never knew there was such a difference...interesting.

^same

though I've always though of it as just a billion but I've never really had to make it (or use it).

 

[Fraught]

You think that's crazy? Go to China or India, and you'll find they do big numbers in groups of four, producing numbesr that look like this: 1,00,00,000 etc, as opposed to 10,000,000). Look up the Indian "Crore".

I like a million millions being a billion, but the change to the American sytem is sensible. If you think 1000 million=1 billion is wrong, then why are you okay with 10 hundreds making 1000? Shouldn't you want it to be 100 hundreds?

100 hundreds.

...100 hundreds.

100 hundreds?

So you had 9 hundreds, up to 999. What the fuck would come next?

Besides, this thread is not about why there aren't a thousand tens, or a bajillion hundreds or an infinity of thousands. It's just about the definition of (one) billion.

Oh, and by the way, I'm curious. What do the British call a one followed by nine zeroes, then?

EDIT: Also...DEM INDIANS.

 

[Bored otter]

In holland 10^9 is a miljard, where 10^12 is biljoen. So we have it backwards to. But in translating i never did it wrong so it's not a problem.

 

[Daffy F]

In the UK, one billion is one million x million

Not exactly. Since on the currency world stage, 1 billion is 1000 million, no-one uses this version anymore.

 

[YouEatLard]

Silly U.K... making up their own numbers.

 

[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

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.

Not quite, they are both definitions of what a billion is. Just because one of them is a lot bigger does not mean they just said "wow, that is a lot" and guessed like you're inferring. Also you saying "personally, I think..." and then saying that what you said is a fact is wrong. It is either a fact or an opinion, what you have there is an opinion but seem too narrow minded to see that the word has more than one meaning

 

[RamirezDoEverything]

I live in the Us and ive always een it as 1000 million.

Strange...

 

[^=ash=^]

I live in the UK and to me it's always been 1 000 000 000 .. however the European way does make more sense to me as pointed out with the bi-million definition etc.

 

[Levi93]

I always though 1 billion was 1,000,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000,000

Not 1,000 x 1,000,000 because that = one thousand million.

 

[ultimateownage]

The American billion is the only thing I think is okay as the American version. Everything else America changes is retarded, and really so would this if I hadn't gotten used to it.

 

[Zaverexus]

every three digits changes the name.
hundred, thousand, million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, Nonillion, Decillion, Undecillion, Duodecillion, and on and on.
It's all Latin.

 

[maninahat]

You think that's crazy? Go to China or India, and you'll find they do big numbers in groups of four, producing numbesr that look like this: 1,00,00,000 etc, as opposed to 10,000,000). Look up the Indian "Crore".

I like a million millions being a billion, but the change to the American sytem is sensible. If you think 1000 million=1 billion is wrong, then why are you okay with 10 hundreds making 1000? Shouldn't you want it to be 100 hundreds?

100 hundreds.

...100 hundreds.

100 hundreds?

So you had 9 hundreds, up to 999. What the fuck would come next?

Besides, this thread is not about why there aren't a thousand tens, or a bajillion hundreds or an infinity of thousands. It's just about the definition of (one) billion.

Oh, and by the way, I'm curious. What do the British call a one followed by nine zeroes, then?

EDIT: Also...DEM INDIANS.

Nine zeros would make it one thousand million.

 

[Korten12]

every three digits changes the name.
hundred, thousand, million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, Nonillion, Decillion, Undecillion, Duodecillion, and on and on.
It's all Latin.

Exactly, I agree with this guy.

 

[Rayansaki]

I prefer Billion to be a million million because after all, that's a stupid thing to say, so it needs a word, wheres with the other, why can't I just say a thousand million the same way as if I were to say a hundred million?

Its not stupid to say, because in neither of the 2 standards do you ever say "million millions". In US way, that's 1 trillion, and in UK way that's 1 billion.

The US way (works the same way in my country and most of the world), is actually more practical, because you never say something like "A hundred thousand millions", but rather a hundred billions. Any number after a thousand millions (1000.000.000) takes one more word to say in the UK way.