Monday, 15 September 2008

A cure for insomnia

I have had a vague idea that the definition of a billion was different in the USA from the European idea and I have now confirmed it. Both accept that a million is a 1 followed by 6 noughts, but an American billion is a 1 followed by 9 noughts, whereas a European billion takes 12, ie a million times a million. In America this would be called a trillion. A European trillion is a 1 followed by 18 noughts. So how long would it take to count from one to a trillion?

Counting moderately quickly from one to ten takes about 5 seconds (I've just tried it), which is two numbers a second. But it takes much longer to say "three hundred and seventy-nine thousand, four hundred and eighty-two" than to say "five", so let's assume an average of one number a second - and even that is generous.

In Europe, it would take 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 seconds, which is 16,666,666,666,666,700 minutes, or 277,777,777,777,778 hours, or 11,574,074,074,074 days, or 31,709,791,984 years. That's thirty-one thousand million years. I bet you are glad to learn that.

Of course, an American could do it a few million years quicker. Either way, counting a trillion sheep jumping over a gate is guaranteed to send you to sleep.

Or mad.

"The person who sends out positive thoughts activates the world around him positively and draws back to himself positive results."

(Norman Vincent Peale)
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4 comments:

  1. (not necessarily your) Uncle Skip15 September 2008 at 17:20

    Gosh! I never much worried about how many zeros (noughts) followed in a billion or a trillion. But now my curiosity has been tweaked.
    What do Europeans call and "American" billion?

    Oh, by the way, please don't tell our politicians about this difference or they be switching to the European method just to reduce the national debt.

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  2. Brighton Pensioner15 September 2008 at 18:55

    Apparently both the Americans and the scientific community give the same weight to the terms billions and trillion etc. In Europe, 1000 million (a milliard)has 12 zeros, the same as an American billion.

    See www.jimloy.com/math/billion.htm

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  3. (not necessarily your) Uncle Skip15 September 2008 at 19:59

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. (not necessarily your) Uncle Skip16 September 2008 at 00:23

    It's easier to say billion than it is to say thousand million. But let's blame the discrepancy on Ben Franklin. He's dead and we're already blaming him for the differences between British and American spelling.

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