Re: billions and billions of stars.... was: Re: Another easter egg in gnome-something...
> On Wed, Sep 12, 2001 at 01:42:42PM -0400, Buddha Buck wrote:
> > At 07:19 PM 09-12-2001 +0200, Neal H Walfield wrote:
> > > > It looks like we're getting confused between the UK billion and the
> > > American billion. (Apologies to all other countries who use one or
> the other.)
> > > >
> > > > American (including Unix) = 10^9
> > > > British = 10^12
> > >
> > >What the heck do the British call 10^9? And further more, is 10^15 a
> > >trillion (in the British system)?
> >
> > I'm not British, but I believe the system is:
Im not British either, i'm Austrian, and in my opinion the british system
(as it is listed here) is more logical. It's quite similar to the german one, I
added a "German" column so u can see. Its interesting that the British say
"Thousand ..illion" whereas we say "..iarde"...
> >
> > American British
German
> > 1000 Thousand Thousand Tausend
(== Thousand)
> > 10^6 Million Million
Million
> > 10^9 Billion Thousand Million (or a Milliard)
Milliarde
> > 10^12 Trillion Billion
Billion
> > 10^15 Quadrillion Thousand Billion
Billiarde
> > 10^18 Quintillion Trillion
Trillion
> > 10^21 Sextillion Thousand Trillion
Trilliade
> > 10^24 Septillion Quadrillion ...
(see the British!)
> > etc.
>
> which actually makes more sense than the american system --
> in the american system, a "bi-illion" is not two of anything that
> a "mono-illion" is one of. however, in the british system, think
> of a million as a factor of 10^6 -- then a "bi-illion" is simply
> two of the factors, or 10^12 (and so on with a "tri-illion" -
> 10^18)
>
> the american system is a wacky off-by-one kinda of thing, where
> a "million" is *two* factors of 10^3, a "billion" is *three* of
> these factors, a "trillion" *four*, and so on.
>
> at least the SI prefixes are unchanged in the british system!
> --Rob
>
> --
> /-------------------------------------------------------------\
> | "If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane" |
> | --Jimmy Buffett, |
> | "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" |
> \-------------------------------------------------------------/
>
>
> --
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-curiosa-request@lists.debian.org
> with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact
> listmaster@lists.debian.org
>
--
Wenn auch die Sicherheit vor den Menschen bis zu einem gewissen Grade
eintritt durch eine bestimmte Macht, Störungen zu beseitigen, und
durch Reichtum, so entspringt doch die reinste Sicherheit aus der
Ruhe und dem Rückzug aus der Masse. (Epikur)
Me, alias Franz Keferböck
GMX - Die Kommunikationsplattform im Internet.
http://www.gmx.net
Reply to: