Technicaly shouldn't a million be a megaillion

[Ricochet J]

As 1,000,000 = 1*10^6

Hence:
10^9 - Giga
10^6 - Mega
10^3 - Kilo
10^-3 - Milli
10^-6 - Micro
10^-9 - Nano

 

[Rosbif]

Huh?

 

[yhack]

Yes.
I'll have 3 gigaillion tonnes of chocolate please.

 

[Jokester]

What about a billion, or a trillion?

Jokester

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Nobody ever said that numbers should follow the SI system of prefixes. I don't get it.

ones, tens, hundreds, thousands not base, deca, hecto, kilo.

 

[Ricochet J]

1,000,000,000 = Billion = 1*10^9 = Gigaillion

 

[reflex]

No

 

[Ricochet J]

Nobody ever said that numbers should follow the SI system of prefixes. I don't get it.

Why have it then? (thats not a go at you, just a general question)

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Why have it then? (thats not a go at you, just a general question)

It's for quantities of measurement, not plain numbers.

EDIT: This might be enlightening: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_prefix

 

[trojan698]

Pedant! Delete!

 

[Scarfacé]

Why have it then? (thats not a go at you, just a general question)

Do Electronics, then you'll use the ENG button on your calculator so much you'll want to eat your own fingers.

 

[pinkacidbootson]

It's for quantities of measurement, not plain numbers.

When we were doing this in AS Physics, me and a mate started applying it for everything.
For example one kiloday = 1000 days.
One megapint = 1,000,000 pints! etc.

Instead of saying "i have to write 20,000 words", it would be "i have to write 20 kilowords". The joke got old though, as you can imagine