How much is a Billion?

[Gadge]

Had a disscusion in work over this, and couldnt decide what makes a billion?

1000 million? million million? i dunno?

 

[Rotty]

A US Billion is 1,000 million

A UK Billion is 1,000,000 million

 

[mleh]

Two billions:

US Billion: 1000 million
British Billion: a million million, though widely use the US version

damn you Rotty!

 

[Kerplunk]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000000000_(number) /heh

 

[Grrrrr]

US: 1000 million = 1,000,000,000
UK: million million = 1,000,000,000,000


However almost no one uses the UK convention any more


waaaaaaaay too slow!

 

[Rotty]

damn you Rotty!

slacker

 

[iCraig]

One thousand million.

Edit: I had this response open for about 3 minutes before hitting reply, did I really expect my answer to be anything more than a repeat?

 

[Raymond Lin]

We had the question lsat week in a pub quiz

Q - How many Zeros are there in a Billion, our table then asked the quiz master on which Billion, English or American, he answer English but then when the asnwer read out he said its' 9 !

Next pub quiz i am going to give him some of these facts !


http://100777.com/node/1501

An English billion is 1,000,000,000,000, whereas an American billion is 1,000,000,000. An American trillion is the same as an English billion and an English trillion is a million million million.

and here

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/english/data/d0081651.html

billion
In British English billion has traditionally meant a million million. The American meaning of billion (a thousand million)

and here

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwords/billion

If you are British, on the other hand, a billion may be 1,000,000,000,000 (a million million), following the older convention.

 

[Wrathamon]

I can remember a story on the news a good few years ago that the UK billion was changed to 1000 million.

 

[Memphis]

Huh, you learn something new every day!

 

[Raumarik]

As I always thought, the yanks can't count!

So only the Yank billion is different, that makes NO SENSE!

 

[Drawoh Tesremos]

I can remember a story on the news a good few years ago that the UK billion was changed to 1000 million.

I believe it was around forty years ago that UK officially changed from the 10^12 billion to the 10^9 billion.

 

[mleh]

So really, Richard Branson is around 100 times richer than Bill Gates? And that 3 Billion he gave the other week to 'charity' was actually 3 trillion in US terms - around the size of the entire UK Housing market?

Rich man...

edit/foiled again.....boohoo

 

[MasterMike]

This is one of the first questions I asked when I learned how to count, so my mother tells me. I think it was then followed by questions like "Is there a squillion? How much is a krillion?", that kind of thing.

 

[Gadge]

quick responses guys, thanks.

 

[G-MAN2004]

Huh, you learn something new every day!

Yea, I've always thought it was a 1000 million and a 1000 billion is a trillion!

 

[Christo]

Ok guys, so what is a European billion???

 

[Sirrel Squirrel]

Yeh it should really be a million million since a million is a thousand thousand and a thousand is a hundred hundred

 

[mleh]

Ok guys, so what is a European billion???

An Eastern European Billion is approximately £3.

 

[Drawoh Tesremos]

Although many people here are refering to the 10^9 billion as the American billion, it's actually French. The Americans copied it from the French way back.