How do you write one billion?

[Guest yatpeak]

Completely off topic I know (That's why it's in the off topic section :) ), but I was just thinking about it...

Thanks,

Wyatt

[Guest Richie M]

The first ones One Thousand Million :) who voted for that?

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

It depends if you are American or not.

The yanks for some reason call one thousand million a billion

but the world is changing.

because it just depends where in the world you are from.

the funny thing is we were talking about this at work the other day

Quote from the Oxford dictionary

Billion

1. a thousand million (1,000,000,000 or 10 to the power of 9)

2. (now less often, esp Brit) a million million (1,000,000,000,000 or 10 to the power of 12

the best bit is also says

3. a very large number :)

So it looks like us brits are becoming obsolete and the

American way is winning ;)

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

And just to add to that a trillion

is now a million million in the new order

but the old British it is a million,million,million

I still think the old way makes more sense

[Guest Richie M]

And just to add to that a trillion

is now a million million in the new order

but the old British it is a million,million,million

I still think the old way makes more sense

Crikey, and the "new" way is well confusing and illogical :?

also, wont be as rich as i thought i was when my American financer tells me i've just made a Billion, it'll only be One Thousand Million :cry:

[Guest Azalar]

1 - Thats a billion

2 - Thats a trillion

Ignore what the Americans say, they talk rubbish most of the time anyway

[Guest superkingdave]

i think they changed it because some people wanted to express how superior they were to normal millionares but they had no term for it so they hijacked billionare...anyway lets face it we wouldn't have much use for billions and trillions if they were used in the correct way

[Guest Syvwlch]

I had the misfortune to learn english in America (but I suppose that is nothing to the misfortune of being born French, right you limeys?)

I think the "new" order makes very good sense. Look at this from an engineering point of view. We use prefixes like kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta etc... We don't say that the new storage server installed to store all those GBC roms has 10, 000 GB, we say it has 10 TB.

Why should we say we fleeced our customers for 10, 000 million euro, when we can say we ripped them off for a cool 10 billion?

It seems clearer and more information-rich to say it that way, to my yank-perverted ears at least.

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

1 - Thats a billion

2 - Thats a trillion

Ignore what the Americans say, they talk rubbish most of the time anyway

You have just quoted the American (new) standard :roll:

so you're not ignoring what the Americans say :)