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

[John Knight]

I can see where you are coming from there but I do have a few hesitations. 
Generally the words used have language roots that give meanings and if every 
country except America and France officially use billion (10 to the power of 
12), I'd say that the word roots probably signify that it means 10 to 12 
(that's the shorthand I'll use for now).

Also, a million is a thousand thousands, shouldn't that make it a billion is 
logically a million millions?

I can see why the Americans used the French version, as the US dialect is 
based around being independent from English. Changing a number like this is 
probably something that they'd do by the sounds of previous history (the 
French have tendency to do things like this also).

Either way, I'll probably stick to the English one at present. Are there any 
experts as such on this topic?

>
>On Mon, 3 Sep 2001, 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).
>
>France is the home of the metric system, so I guess it makes sense to
>follow their lead when it comes to expressing quantities.
>
>--
>Andrew Francis
>locust at iinet.net.au
>
>
>


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