Measurement

[solbjerg]

I was wondering if anybody know why they use billion instead of milliard in the US?

The most logical seems to be to use milliard, that system is I think mostly derived from French, and there a billion is 10 to the power of 12 - 10^12,

a billiard would then be 10^15 and a trillion 10^18 and so on

There is a lot of different measurement standards around the globe, and they are apparently difficult to change.

Some will probably change due to new technology, perhaps pixels when the technology is able to depict smaller points?

[warrior4302]

This is what i got from From Wikipedia

 

Milliard is a French-derived word meaning the number 1,000,000,000 (109; one thousand million; SI prefix giga). It is not used in American English and is rare in other forms of English - the preferred term being 'thousand million'. During the 20th century, the short scale "billion" superseded 'thousand million' to become the normal term in the most of the English-speaking world.

 

"Milliard", or a version thereof, is common to many languages other than English.

[solbjerg]

This is what i got from From Wikipedia

 

Milliard is a French-derived word meaning the number 1,000,000,000 (109; one thousand million; SI prefix giga). It is not used in American English and is rare in other forms of English - the preferred term being 'thousand million'. During the 20th century, the short scale "billion" superseded 'thousand million' to become the normal term in the most of the English-speaking world.

 

"Milliard", or a version thereof, is common to many languages other than English.

Yes warrior

But what is the logic behind it?

[warrior4302]

My guess is. In our number system it goes from million then billion then trillion etc.. So in my opinion it would seem more logical to have billion and not milliard.

[solbjerg]

My guess is. In our number system it goes from million then billion then trillion etc.. So in my opinion it would seem more logical to have billion and not milliard.

Yes but bi- means two? And mil- means thousand, so two times the zeroes in million and a thousand million for milliard, right? that seems more logical to me.

[warrior4302]

Youv'e got me there:oops: Other than what I said before I have no idea.

[solbjerg]

ok, thanks - we'll see if anybody has a good explanation :-)

[warrior4302]

I just found out some info from Wikipedia.

 

Short scale is the English translation of the French term échelle courte.[1] It refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term is 1 000 times greater than the previous term: "billion" means "a thousand millions" (109), "trillion" means "a thousand billions" (1012), and so on.

Long scale is the English translation of the French term échelle longue. It refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term is 1 000 000 times greater than the previous term: "billion" means "a million squared" (1012), "trillion" means "a million to the third power" (1018), and so on.

 

I think this explains it.

[samr]

Hi guys,

Very good explanation warrior, but being from the US I thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth. When it comes to STANDARDS, when has the US been logical?.That would be Il-logical!

samr

[solbjerg]

I just found out some info from another website.

 

Short scale is the English translation of the French term échelle courte.[1] It refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term is 1 000 times greater than the previous term: "billion" means "a thousand millions" (109), "trillion" means "a thousand billions" (1012), and so on.

Long scale is the English translation of the French term échelle longue. It refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term is 1 000 000 times greater than the previous term: "billion" means "a million squared" (1012), "trillion" means "a million to the third power" (1018), and so on.

 

I think this explains it.

Yes warrior, thanks

but still -

a 1000 thousand, in the abbrivated french form million

from that logic it looks more straight forward to say that a trillion should be 10^9 ; 10⁹??

[warrior4302]

Ha ha nice one Samr.

[solbjerg]

I just found out some info from Wikipedia.

 

Short scale is the English translation of the French term échelle courte.[1] It refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term is 1 000 times greater than the previous term: "billion" means "a thousand millions" (109), "trillion" means "a thousand billions" (1012), and so on.

Long scale is the English translation of the French term échelle longue. It refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term is 1 000 000 times greater than the previous term: "billion" means "a million squared" (1012), "trillion" means "a million to the third power" (1018), and so on.

 

I think this explains it.

Yes - thank you

I knew about short and long form

But it seems to me that if a thousand thousand is a million 10^6; 10⁶

shouldn't then a thousand thousand thousand be a trillion? 10^9; 10⁹

???? :-) :-) :-)

[warrior4302]

Im guessing so.

[solbjerg]

By the way warrior

the circumflex accent is the accepted notation for exponent (to the power of) and is a key on the keyboard, can also be written by holding the Alt key down and pressing 094 on the numberpad.

You can't use it in Windows calculator, but it is used in Excel.

Giga is also a billion/milliard 10^9, but gigabyte is 1024³ or 1024^3 so a gigabyte is 2^30

Pico- is a billionth 1/10¹² (in US a trillionth)