When I went to school, we were correctly taught that 1,000,000 =One Million. 1,000,000,000,000 =One Billion & 1,000,000,000 =One thousand million, so why has it now been changed? Is it to appease the Americans who don't understand that 1,000,000,000,000 =One BILLION & NOT one Trillion as they seen to believe! It seems to me we are getting more like "Yanky- Land" every day, mores the damned pity. It's about time this "England" stood it's ground over values that are slipping away too fast in my opinion, just to be like the Americans, a sad day for all of us, I say.
2006-08-26 19:55:37 · 9 answers · asked by Richard A 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Other - Society & Culture
You already know; it is down to Yankee "boosterism", making a thousand million dollars sound even more impressive by passing it off as a billion. Somewhere in the last few years the usage has escaped from dollars to everything. New Scientist magazine, of all things, seems to be a major culprit, possibly because their writers are used to thinking in metric multiples; mega = million, giga = thousand million/US billion, tera = billion/US trillion &c.
2006-08-26 20:34:26 · answer #1 · answered by cdrotherham 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In the US, Canada and France one thousand millions (1,000,000,000) is one billion.
In Great Britian and Germany one million millions (1,000,000,000,000) is one billion.
In recent years billion has been increasingly used in Great Britian in the sense of one thousand million, probably due to the influence of American usage.
You might as well get over it because it's not going to change.
2006-08-26 20:21:22 · answer #2 · answered by no nickname 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Why do Little Englanders waste every-one else's time and space with their concept that everyone else is out of step but me? And I'm not a Yank, from the UK but definitely not English!
2006-08-26 20:02:43 · answer #3 · answered by Moyle-Ceefax 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Urm... that is because science has counted higher... certain things are easier than saying one thousand billion million
2006-08-26 20:02:44 · answer #4 · answered by WhiteHat 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no every time you add three zero's it goes up a notch.
so how do you say 1,000,000,000,000,000,000?
we say a quintillion, for five extra sets of zero's after the thousand point.
what do you say? a billion billion??? sounds kind of dumb to me, and then there is sextillion, septillion, octillion , etc... you say what a billlion billion billion billion?? ha, ha
2006-08-26 20:06:02 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
1,000,000,000=one billion
2006-08-26 20:01:21 · answer #6 · answered by Hailey 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What is now generally accepted is correct.
That is the way the english language evolves.
2006-08-26 20:04:30 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
For numbers in that range, does it REALLY matter?
2006-08-26 21:42:01 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
does it really matter?
2006-08-26 20:01:59 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋