Why is an English billion and an American billion different?

Question

I'm going to have to put this to a vote, because the sourced answers from the same site contradict each other.

Answer 1

yozora is simply wrong about the Americans "changing" the system.

The fact is that the two systems --called "long scale" and "short scale" were in use in the 18th century, neither was "the standard" and Americans decided to adopt the "short scale" (Similarly for American "spelling changes", though some were new attempts at simplifications, others were just choosing between competing forms for which one "standard" had not yet been established among the British! )

By the way, you can blame the French for all this -- they had both systems!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

Answer 2

A British billion is a more sensibly named number in that it has the prefix bi- meaning two because it is a million times a million.

However the American billion is a number which has more use at the moment, because it is only a thousand million.

I've no idea why the Americans use this term instead of inventing another name for a thousand million, it does seem rather arrogant to generate another meaning for the same word.
However British scientists are forced to use the American billion to avoid confusion.

Answer 3

Americans don't know numbers as big as an English Billion. Maybe the Americans wanted to appear richer than everyone so they have a billion before the rest of the world.

Answer 4

This page tells you all the differences!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sextillion

The English billion is a million millions (1,000,000,000,000), and the American billion is a thousand millions (1,000,000,000).

They changed it because;
1. they thought it would be simpler to understand -
2. because they wanted to be DIFFERENT to England -
and
3. because they knew that Americans would not be 'properly' educated for a long time to come and so they NEEDED to keep things simple!! (Like the spelling of a lot of things too, all changed for the same 3 reasons!)

I'm not going to comment on the current state of American education though! And frankly, education the world over is in a serious decline.

Answer 5

I'm not sure about the British, but here in Germany we have what we call a "Milliarde" (1,000,000,000) which is equivalent to the American Billion, then next we have our billion(1,000,000,000,000). So I guess maybe that's how they have it in England. I don't know what they would call that in England.
Sory Kenn, don't asume if America has it like that, the rest of the world automatically does too.

Answer 6

A billion is a billion is a billion in any language...unless you're talking about money.

In that case, one English pound is worth more than one American dollar.

That's the only difference I can see.

Answer 7

Because a million millon was seen as too big a number to be practical in the days when it was coined. So the Americans decided to reduce it to a thousand million.

Answer 8

good question, something i've been pondering for a long time

seriously

an english billion is a thousand million

an american billion is a million million

i think

did i get it the wrong way round?

anyway, there is a difference and it's right for you to point it out

let's standardise/standardize, i say

what say you?

Answer 9

Because an American billion is a thousand million and an English billion is a million million.

American format is to start a new unit every 3 zeroes, so...
units, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions, ten millions, hundred millions, billions

British format replicates the entire "previous string" so.....
units, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions, ten millions, hundred millions, thousand millions, ten thousand millions, hundred thousand millions, billions

Answer 10

Because the Americans can't count!