As I understand it in uk 1,000,000 x 1,000,000 =1Billion
In US 1,000 x 1,000,000 = 1Billion
Which is correct or are they both right?
2006-12-17 21:41:17 · 24 answers · asked by JOHN M 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
ok i don't know if its true but i have heard it before as well and reading your calculations i make you right because now iv read it here it is ringing a bell that i have read it in a book before
2006-12-17 21:42:35 · answer #1 · answered by D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F 4 · 1⤊ 3⤋
Mathematically a billion is a million millions. Just as a million is a thousand thousands and a thousand is a hundred hundreds and a hundred is ten tens. Likewise a trillion is a billion billions.
However, because Tony Blair licks the boot leather of George Bush and we Brits can't be bothered correcting the Americans for ever and ever, we have accepted the American version that one thousand times one million equals a billion.
At the end of the day it's just a name for a number. It's linguistic differences really.
2006-12-18 08:33:49 · answer #2 · answered by Bror Jace 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well of course they're not both right - ours is right because we're British! *All stand for national anthem* however due to the insidious US media their smaller billion is now standard and when people in this country speak of a billion they almost always mean 1000,000,000 and not the old UK version which as you say was 1000,000,000,000.
A site which shows the official (though outdated) terms for large numbers can be found here - http://g42.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=BigNumbers you'll see that the same problem is now created for trillion and quadrillion as well. However I'd argue we did need a proper phrase for an amount we'd be seeing more and more and billion makes more sense than milliard for this reason.
2006-12-18 06:15:46 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Yes they are both right
but actually 1 million million makes more sense
because 1 thousand thousand is 1 million
and you can say 1 thousand million with out sounding that weird
1 million million kind of sounds strange
can you tell I'm from the UK?
2006-12-18 11:10:02 · answer #4 · answered by **rainbow** 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That was origionally correct - but recently we've kinda given way and started to use the US version just to simplfy things a little, so a billion is now officially 1000 x 1,000,000
2006-12-18 05:43:14 · answer #5 · answered by board-stupid 3 · 4⤊ 2⤋
Yes, in the UK 1 Billion is a million x a million.
The UK, as usual, are correct.
2006-12-18 05:43:28 · answer #6 · answered by RRM 4 · 3⤊ 2⤋
We gave in to the yanks over this. We knew we could never teach them to use 10^12 as a million, so now we have a milliard for this and 10^9 as a million .(we're more adaptable in UK)
Thanks a milliard guys
2006-12-18 06:02:35 · answer #7 · answered by peter c 2 · 3⤊ 1⤋
you are right but the standard billion which is acceptable all over the world is the american billion which is a thousand million
2006-12-18 11:10:12 · answer #8 · answered by yason 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm surprised. I didn't know there was a difference. I thought a billion, was a billion, was a billion, which to me means 1000 X million.
But, I did some research, and found you are indeed right.
and a British billion which is 1,000,000,000,000.
2006-12-18 05:54:46 · answer #9 · answered by bon b 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
As far as I understand it a billion is a billion no matter where in the world u are - a billion has 9 zero's so it can only be 1000 x 1000 000 as far as my logic tells me. It certainly is the same in South Africa as US anyway.
2006-12-18 06:11:11 · answer #10 · answered by Tequila Sheila SA 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Here in the UK a billion is 1000,000,000,000. We call 1000,000,000 "one thousand million".
In the US a billion is 1000,000,000. What do you call 1000,000,000,000 ?
2006-12-18 08:02:43 · answer #11 · answered by Timbo 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋