Printable Version | Subscribe | Add to Favourites
New Topic New Poll New Reply
Author: Subject: have i found a flaw in wikipedia?
omega0684

posted on 26/8/09 at 10:07 AM Reply With Quote
have i found a flaw in wikipedia?

i was looking up the definition of one billion to find out how many 0's it should have, im certain it was 12 zeros as a biliion is a million million, right

this is what wikipedia says,

The long and short scales are two of the several different numerical systems used throughout the world:

Short scale is the English translation of the French term échelle courte.[1] It refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term greater than million is 1,000 times the previous term: billion means a thousand millions (10^9), trillion means a thousand billions (10^12), and so on.

Long scale is the English translation of the French term échelle longue. It refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term greater than million is 1,000,000 times the previous term: billion (from bi and million) means a million to the power of two or a million millions (10^12), trillion (from tri and million) means a million to the power of three or a million billions (10^18), and so on.

it the short scale it says a billion is 10^9 and in the long scale it says a billion is 10^12?

so which is it?

View User's Profile E-Mail User Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
philw

posted on 26/8/09 at 10:09 AM Reply With Quote
Are you counting your money?





Must try harder

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
flak monkey

posted on 26/8/09 at 10:10 AM Reply With Quote
Generally accepted now that 1 billion is 9 zeros.

This is the old story of why America had billionaires and the UK didnt. Uk always used to be 12 zeros and the US 9 zeros.





Sera

http://www.motosera.com

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
MikeR

posted on 26/8/09 at 10:11 AM Reply With Quote
Both - there are two definitions.........

great isn't it.

I was under the impression generally the americans used the short version and the brits used the long version.

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
cd.thomson

posted on 26/8/09 at 10:15 AM Reply With Quote
I believe the fact that Craig Venter is American is why often figures used in modern human genetics are quoted using the short scale 10^9 for 1 billion.

[Edited on 26/8/09 by cd.thomson]





Craig

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
MikeRJ

posted on 26/8/09 at 10:15 AM Reply With Quote
I think everyone uses 10^9 now. It certainly makes more sense anyway.
View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
scottc

posted on 26/8/09 at 10:18 AM Reply With Quote
I thought we'd switch to Thousand Million to.





http://www.sotoconnect.com

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
coozer

posted on 26/8/09 at 10:21 AM Reply With Quote
Problem with Wiki is that anyone can edit it to say what ever they like... so always to be taken with a pinch of salt.





1972 V8 Jago

1980 Z750

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
cd.thomson

posted on 26/8/09 at 10:25 AM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by coozer
Problem with Wiki is that anyone can edit it to say what ever they like... so always to be taken with a pinch of salt.


Still its only marginally more flawed than the encyclopedia britannica (4 errors per article rather than 3 on average) due to its editing/writing protocols and peer review process.





Craig

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
tomprescott

posted on 26/8/09 at 10:48 AM Reply With Quote
Most commonly accpeted is shortscale 10^9, although 10^12 is still valid. Increased cooperation between UK and US banks (as evidenced by the recession, cheers Gordon!) has further cemented the widespread use of 10^9 as a billion, 10^12 under the same system would now be a trillion(?). HTH

I agree with Craig, Wiki is usually as reliable as any other source, however, if you're writing an academic piece don't use it as a reference - because its not peer assessed!

[Edited on 26/8/09 by tomprescott]

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
RK

posted on 26/8/09 at 12:01 PM Reply With Quote
All I know is that a billion UK pounds is worth almost double a billion Cdn $ - unless you live in the UK, where things are almost doubly expensive, and then it wouldn't matter.
View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
02GF74

posted on 26/8/09 at 01:03 PM Reply With Quote
both are correct.

check out milliard

these numbers do not bother me as I don't have a million pounds let alone a milliard/billion/whippyzillion pounds.






View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
blakep82

posted on 26/8/09 at 03:40 PM Reply With Quote
1,000 thousand
1,000,000 million
1,000,000,000 billion
1,000,000,000,000 trillion

as i understand it





________________________

IVA manual link http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1081997083

don't write OT on a new thread title, you're creating the topic, everything you write is very much ON topic!

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
JoelP

posted on 26/8/09 at 06:12 PM Reply With Quote
i found out the other day that quadrillion is the one above trillion, but then the pattern seems obvious and it would be quintrillion next

And everyone uses short nowadays IMHO.






View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
02GF74

posted on 26/8/09 at 07:07 PM Reply With Quote
a marillion is how much?






View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
ken555

posted on 26/8/09 at 07:50 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by 02GF74
a marillion is how much?


One Fish ?

View User's Profile E-Mail User Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member

New Topic New Poll New Reply


go to top






Website design and SEO by Studio Montage

All content © 2001-16 LocostBuilders. Reproduction prohibited
Opinions expressed in public posts are those of the author and do not necessarily represent
the views of other users or any member of the LocostBuilders team.
Running XMB 1.8 Partagium [© 2002 XMB Group] on Apache under CentOS Linux
Founded, built and operated by ChrisW.