How big is a billion? - Numberphile
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However, I'm thinking. What could be the reasons that Japanese is - in a way - oriented towards 10 000 and we focus on 1 000 instead. They adopted the system from the Chinese. Maybe the mathematicians there had to deal with different numbers due to population growth or economy.
Date: 2022-04-08
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Comments and reviews: 9
The
in Brazil we use the short system and it never really confused me that we multiply by 1000 instead of multiplying by 1, 000, 000 which would be the correct way.
I simply assumed that million, billion, trillion, etc, made sense just like one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, etc, but instead of multiplying by one million you would multiply by one thousand because it's easier to understand like, after 1000, you multiply by 1000 again: that's one million; then multiply _that_ by 1000 again: that's one billion; etc.
so instead of 7 billion people on Earth
we have 7 milliard people on Earth
7 billion (long) equals to 7 trillion (short)
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in Brazil we use the short system and it never really confused me that we multiply by 1000 instead of multiplying by 1, 000, 000 which would be the correct way.
I simply assumed that million, billion, trillion, etc, made sense just like one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, etc, but instead of multiplying by one million you would multiply by one thousand because it's easier to understand like, after 1000, you multiply by 1000 again: that's one million; then multiply _that_ by 1000 again: that's one billion; etc.
so instead of 7 billion people on Earth
we have 7 milliard people on Earth
7 billion (long) equals to 7 trillion (short)
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Epicon
The old system makes more sense to me because after ninety nine it would be illogal to say -ten ten- so a 'hundred' is introduced. A hundred hundred is a thousand and a million million is a billion.
There's nothing illogical with saying 560 million using the old way.
But i'm sure the short scale system took over because there is almost no context where the word billion could be used if the old way was used but in short scale billions are amounts often numbered.
With the old system there wouldn't be a single billionaire on the planet. Elon musk would only be a quarter of a billionaire, but with the short scale he has 268 billion: )
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The old system makes more sense to me because after ninety nine it would be illogal to say -ten ten- so a 'hundred' is introduced. A hundred hundred is a thousand and a million million is a billion.
There's nothing illogical with saying 560 million using the old way.
But i'm sure the short scale system took over because there is almost no context where the word billion could be used if the old way was used but in short scale billions are amounts often numbered.
With the old system there wouldn't be a single billionaire on the planet. Elon musk would only be a quarter of a billionaire, but with the short scale he has 268 billion: )
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The_Dark_Jumper
As a german, after years of being shoved into the long system, I actually really dislike it.
If I asked you to count from 1 to 10, and you started counting -1, 1. 5, 2, 2. 5. - I'd call you crazy!
But the Million, Milliard, Billion, Billiard system has -exactly- that same kind of energy to me. It's convoluted counting.
I can appreciate the mathematical elegance that you've shown, but, as you said, it's not meant for mathematicians, it's to convert these numbers into words that are easy to grasp for a wide variety of readers.
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As a german, after years of being shoved into the long system, I actually really dislike it.
If I asked you to count from 1 to 10, and you started counting -1, 1. 5, 2, 2. 5. - I'd call you crazy!
But the Million, Milliard, Billion, Billiard system has -exactly- that same kind of energy to me. It's convoluted counting.
I can appreciate the mathematical elegance that you've shown, but, as you said, it's not meant for mathematicians, it's to convert these numbers into words that are easy to grasp for a wide variety of readers.
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Garrick
Growing up in England, some time ago, I remember there being some confusion at school about what a billion was, but I forgot what the reason was. I expect it was this.
Also, any Americans know why $1M is seen by some older people as $1, 000 rather than $1, 000, 000, and a million is $1MM? I assume it's an American thing, although it might not be. At work when we use $1M for a million or $1K for a thousand, it caused no end of confusion among the senior executives. Is it just because of the Roman numeral system, where M is 1000?
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Growing up in England, some time ago, I remember there being some confusion at school about what a billion was, but I forgot what the reason was. I expect it was this.
Also, any Americans know why $1M is seen by some older people as $1, 000 rather than $1, 000, 000, and a million is $1MM? I assume it's an American thing, although it might not be. At work when we use $1M for a million or $1K for a thousand, it caused no end of confusion among the senior executives. Is it just because of the Roman numeral system, where M is 1000?
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Bazaar
-somebody got it wrong and it sort of caught on- -> that's basically how all modern languages exist. French is just Latin where everybody got a lot of it wrong over time (as was Latin from its parent language, Current day English is the Anglo-saxon germanic language where mistakes accumulate over time to become old English, Middle English, Modern English (and later future English who will also have a lot of mistakes becoming the norm. There's no -right or wrong- for how a language evolves, just a set of moving conventions.
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-somebody got it wrong and it sort of caught on- -> that's basically how all modern languages exist. French is just Latin where everybody got a lot of it wrong over time (as was Latin from its parent language, Current day English is the Anglo-saxon germanic language where mistakes accumulate over time to become old English, Middle English, Modern English (and later future English who will also have a lot of mistakes becoming the norm. There's no -right or wrong- for how a language evolves, just a set of moving conventions.
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Jacob
The illogicalness of the short system reminds me of how the first floor of buildings is referred to as the 'ground floor' instead of the first floor, the floor above that is called the 'first floor' when it should be the second, then the floor above that is the 'second floor' when it should be the third, ect.
The short system could make sense if it used terms based on a thousand since it's based on powers of a thousand. Such as Thousand, Bithousand, Trithousand, Quadthousand, etc.
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The illogicalness of the short system reminds me of how the first floor of buildings is referred to as the 'ground floor' instead of the first floor, the floor above that is called the 'first floor' when it should be the second, then the floor above that is the 'second floor' when it should be the third, ect.
The short system could make sense if it used terms based on a thousand since it's based on powers of a thousand. Such as Thousand, Bithousand, Trithousand, Quadthousand, etc.
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Larry
The British switched as early as 1974? In 1975 I met a Brit who was still using the long system: he cited some number in the billions and added, -and those are British billions- to make sure that I as an American wouldn't misinterpret. I went on thinking the Brits were still using the long system until sometime in the 21st century when I found out they'd switched. I learned both systems when young, and I prefer the long system logically but can't use it in American everyday life.
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The British switched as early as 1974? In 1975 I met a Brit who was still using the long system: he cited some number in the billions and added, -and those are British billions- to make sure that I as an American wouldn't misinterpret. I went on thinking the Brits were still using the long system until sometime in the 21st century when I found out they'd switched. I learned both systems when young, and I prefer the long system logically but can't use it in American everyday life.
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mathguy37
well the short system it represents it's the nth illion
million is the 1st -illion
billion is the 2nd illion
trillion is the 3rd -illion
quadrillion is the 4th -illion
quintillion is the 5th -illion
.
.
.
decillion is the 10th -illion
undecillion is the 11th -illion
centillion is the 100th -illion
millinillion (idk if i spelled it right) is the 1000th -illion
and so on
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well the short system it represents it's the nth illion
million is the 1st -illion
billion is the 2nd illion
trillion is the 3rd -illion
quadrillion is the 4th -illion
quintillion is the 5th -illion
.
.
.
decillion is the 10th -illion
undecillion is the 11th -illion
centillion is the 100th -illion
millinillion (idk if i spelled it right) is the 1000th -illion
and so on
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Ale
I'm from Colombia and we use the long system here, I was thought to get the correct name of a number to count the zeros starting with the first zero to the right.
one
ten
hundred
thousand
ten thousand
hundred thousand
million
ten million
hundred million
thousand million
ten thousand million
hundred thousand million
million of a million or billion
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I'm from Colombia and we use the long system here, I was thought to get the correct name of a number to count the zeros starting with the first zero to the right.
one
ten
hundred
thousand
ten thousand
hundred thousand
million
ten million
hundred million
thousand million
ten thousand million
hundred thousand million
million of a million or billion
reply
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