How much is a Billion, really?

KMAadmin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:46:37 -0600

Here is an interesting fact: In America, a billion is a thousand million written thus 1,000,000,000

However, in England, the British define a billion as a million million. That is 1,000,000 times 1,000,000 which would be written thus 1,000,000,000,000

Once you get past eight zeroes, the British names do not match the American names. For example, a number followed by 9 zeroes is in the British "milliards" but the American "trillions". In other words, the British Numbering System is completely different from the American Numbering System after the thousands and millions. Thousand and Million are the same, but then you see Milliard, Billion, Billiard, Trillion, Trilliard, etc.

American / British / No of Zeros

Thousand / Thousand / 3 / 000

Million / Million / 6 / 000000

Billion / Milliard / 9 / 000000000

Trillion / Billion / 12 / 000000000000

Quadrillion / Thousand Billion / 15 / 000000000000000

Quintillion / Trillion / 18 / 000000000000000000

This is important not only for economics but also for science - when you hear Billion and Trillions being bandied about, we need to be clear about whether we are talking about the British or American system. So, is that the American one thousand million equals a billion world, or the British one million million equals a billion world? This is important as it is the difference between 2,000,000,000,000,000 degrees C and 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 degrees C.

You can find out more about the British and American numbering systems at Numbering Systems and Place Value Website Additionally, the site looks at other naming systems for large numbers such as the Googols and Googolplexes.

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