[plug] billion (was Unix Epoch: 1 billion seconds breakfast function.)

[Bret Busby]

On Mon, 03 Sep 2001, Colin Muller wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 03, 2001 at 11:51:33AM +0800, John Knight wrote:
> > Time for my usual rant of pedantry, but would this be an English or an 
> > American billion? I've always been quite puzzled by this as according to the 
> > dictionary, a billion is 10 to the power of 12 (a million millions) unless 
> > you live in America or France where it is 10 to the power of 9 (a thousand 
> > millions).
> > 
> > Why does everyone use the US billion even if modern dictionaries say that 
> > it's 10 to the power of 12? I'm not trying to point out an error, this has 
> > simply been puzzling me for years.
> 
> If the dictionaries don't reflect general usage, then the dictionaries
> are broken - not the people.
> 
> Colin

The dictionaries merely state what the words are and what they mean. If people
misuse the words, it is the people that are the problem ("Exterminate!
Exterminate!").

Interestingly, the origin of the word billion, is from the french (Concise
Oxford Dictionary, Shorter Oxford Dictionary), and billion means million
million (use of the prefix bi- ), but, as mentioned in the Shorter Oxford,
"2. In U.S. (as in France, where the system of numeration is based on groups of
threes, not groups of sixes): A thousand millions"
So, the problem stems from the french, who cannot count past three.

As for most of the world using the incorrect version of billion,meaning
actually thousand million, you must remember, we are part of the evil empire;
the worl is run by the USA...  Be scared, be very scared... We are all subjects
of the USA empire...

Bret Busby
..........