OT: Re: Proposal

[Michael Matz <matzmich@cs.tu-berlin.de>]

Hi,

On Sat, 29 Sep 2001, Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:

> > > BILLION won't expand to what you think.  As for UK notation, I'm
> > > British and I can't think of the last time I've seen a billion have 12
> > > zeroes.  In fact, I think the only time it occurs is when people are
> > > comparing the claimed British and American forms :-)
> > >
> > A billion has no zeros: 1.e+12
>
> I think that what Neil meant is:
> % units billion
>         Definition: 1e9 = 1e+09

May be for your country.  E.g. germany has billion==1e12 (we have mi-,
bi-, tri-, quadri- and quinti- as first parts and -llion, and -lliard(e)
as second parts alternating.  I.e million==1e6, milliard(e)==1e9,
billion==1e12, billiarde=1e15 ... quintilliarde==1e33) for those, who are
interested ;-)

Given that a million is 1e6 in both countries, and a _bi_llion is somehow
two times a m(ono)illion, and 1e9 is neither the double of 1e6 nor has
twice as much zeros, whereas 1e12 has, I find our definition more logical.
But then again I may be biased ;)


Ciao,
Michael.