Poll: One Billion

[fatmrbunko]

sorry man but now in the UK 1billion is 1thousand miilion now and has been for around 3ish years i believe

 

[Tokkobot]

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.

hunder, thousand, million, milliard, billion, billiard...
In the end it just seems like the other system ditches the "-liards" and just keeps the "-lions". I guess it makes sense after all.

 

[Verlander]

The UK way makes more sense

Ten
One Hundred
One Thousand
Ten Thousand
Hundred Thousand
One Million
Ten Million
Hundred Million
Thousand Million
Billion
etc etc etc

Or, if you use letters, it comes out like this a, b, c, ac, bc, d, ad, bd, cd, e, ae, be, ce, de, f, etc, the beautiful symmetry of which is sadly missing in the American version

Not only does it make more sense mathematically, but also would reduce the amount of billionaires in the world. However in most terms, the US definition is used, because Maths and too many words confuses people.

 

[Eumersian]

I had heard of the mysterious "milliard" (thousand million), but I thought it was a dead concept at this point. I always knew a million as 1,000,000 and a billion as 1,000,000,000. So a milliard would be a billion, but nobody that I know of uses that term anyway.

But just in case someone does, I'll know what they mean.

 

[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.

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

This thread has just made me curious as to what the fuck other "modifications" to math the UK has done.
Does the UK trillion have 28 zeroes?
Does the UK thousand have 2 zeroes?
Does the UK google have 89 zeroes?

 

[Lazzi]

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?

Becuase a million million is a trillion.


its goes

*million
*billion
*trillion
*quadrillion
*pentillion
*hextiollion
*septillion
*octillion
*and ect...

 

[Daveman]

Regardless of who uses what billion, everyone in maths and in newspapers (so if you see the huge government bailouts that are in billions) and just generally around the world uses 1,000,000,000 as a billion. It just is and there's no arguing. Although I do agree that 1,000,000,000,000 does make more sense to me. After all we have "ten thousand" and "one hundred thousand" then only at what would be "one thousand thousand" does it step it up. Although the counter argument is that we have "thousands" instead of "10 hundred" not "a hundred hundred"... Basically the whole system is retarded.

 

[bak00777]

one thousand million, it just makes sense.

 

[Daveman]

Or, if you use letters, it comes out like this a, b, c, ac, bc, d, ad, bd, cd, e, ae, be, ce, de, f, etc, the beautiful symmetry of which is sadly missing in the American version

Yeah but for that system to work you're missing "ab". Basically both sides have their arguments.

 

[Verlander]

Or, if you use letters, it comes out like this a, b, c, ac, bc, d, ad, bd, cd, e, ae, be, ce, de, f, etc, the beautiful symmetry of which is sadly missing in the American version

Yeah but for that system to work you're missing "ab". Basically both sides have their arguments.

I guess you could use 1 as being a, and ab would also be c, but you're right. I think it works out that mathematically the UK one is better, but linguistically the US one is better

 

[lacktheknack]

Apparently, some people think that overpopulation is a lot scarier than it really is.

Anyways, it's 1,000,000,000. A thousand billions is a trillion, a thousand trillions is a quadrillion, then quintillion, et cetera. See the pattern?

Counting would be much more hellish than it already is if a quadrillion was a trillion trillions (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, as opposed to 1,000,000,000,000,000).

 

[s0p0g]

1000 millions are 1 milliard, of course, so a billion's one million millons. unfortunately, americans (does anyone else define a billion as 1000 millions?) seem to be unable to count (?)


aaand what he said:

If you call a million million a billion, then what do you call a thousand million?

 

[monkey_man]

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?

In Norwegian, the word billion refers to a million x million, and we have a separate word (milliard) for 1000 x million.

Us Netherlandic folks use the same system.
I think it's better.
million 1,000,000 (can perhaps imagine)
milliard 1,000,000,000 (cannot imagine)
billion 1,000,000,000,000 (cannot imagine)
billiard 1,000,000,000,000,000 ( Certainly cannot imagine)
It keeps it nicely in pairs of 2.
But let's agree. they are all OVER NINETHOUSAND!!!1!!one!!1

 

[Faladorian]

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?

a million million is a trillion. There is a word for it already, and yeah a million million does sound silly XD

Thats why the science channel bugs me. "This is one million million million million million million million million times the size of a peanut." Okay, that helps...

 

[Spacewolf]

the 1000 millions has been offically adopted in UK as well for quite awhile i think it was about the same time aluminium was made official in the us

 

[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

This thread has just made me curious as to what the fuck other "modifications" to math the UK has done.
Does the UK trillion have 28 zeroes?
Does the UK thousand have 2 zeroes?
Does the UK google have 89 zeroes?

Modifications? Our definition was the original one...surely the american one is the modification. Also it's googol and no we haven't changed anything

 

[Torrasque]

So the definition of a billion is different for the UK.
That is just silly.

1,000,000 = 1 million
1,000,000,000 = 1 billion
1,000,000,000,000 = 1 trillion
1,000,000,000,000,000 = 1 quadrillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 = 1 quintillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = 1 sectillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = 1 septillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = 1 octillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = 1 notillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = 1 decitillion
1 followed by 330 zeros = 1 centillion
1 followed by 3330 zeroes = 1 millenitillion

I don't see why this isn't the same across the world.
The entire point of calling MY billion, a UK thousand million, is retarded.
You don't call a million a thousand thousand, and as far as I know, you don't call anything else a thousand *whatever*.
I like "my" system because thats how I learned it, thats how it makes sense, and because it is consistent throughout, that is how I shall use it.

I'm curious as to why "a thousand million" makes sense in any way.