What's a Billion?

[Temsen]

We use the long system in Denmark and yes it gets very confusing when you read english articles using the term billion when those numbers are astronumical high in our minds, but you get use to ignoring any english number system (gallon/pounds/foot etc.) when you think of how smart the (liter/gram/meter) system works in comparison.

So a billion is 1.000.000.000.000 and 1.000.000.000 is a milliard (note how we also use dots and not comma's to seperate the numbers, comma's here indicate decimals).

Pretty much this, except I'm from Germany.

1.000.000.000.000.000 equals trillion(brit.), quintillion(amer., hope I'm correct here), Trillion(ger.)
PS: didn't watch the movie

That's obvoius, as it's even said in the video; it's a billiard / Billiarde.

[Ineras]

I use 1,000,000,000 for a billion.

[LurkerOnly]

from germany so I use dots ofc
1.000.000 equals million, Million(ger.)
1.000.000.000 equals milliard (brit.), billion(amer.), Milliarde(ger.)
1.000.000.000.000 equals billion(brit.), trillion(amer.), Billion(ger.)
1.000.000.000.000.000 equals trillion(brit.), quintillion(amer., hope I'm correct here), Trillion(ger.)
etc. pp.
always wondered why Americans are ahead of the rest of the world

PS: didn't watch the movie

1,000,000,000,000,000 - quadrillion
1.000,000,000,000,000,000 - quintillion

the prefix on "illion" indicates how many times 1000 is multiplied by 1000. Million is the only exception. "Bi"llion - twice "Tri"llion - thrice "Quadri"llion" - four times "Quinti"llion - five times, and so on. The long scale frankly makes no sense to me, to be on topic. It seems somewhat non-metric, to be honest (although that's coming from an american). Always wondered if the long scale measures million/million, wtf do you call the in-between thousands? This "illiard" thing seems inconsistent and un-necessary, which is somewhat counter to the point of the metric.

[Grizzly Willy]

One billion is 1,000,000,000. I have never heard of it being 1,000,000,000,000. But then again, I always expect two spaces after a period, and apparently I'm wrong on that as well.

[Jackmoves]

tf do you call the in-between thousands? This "illiard" thing seems inconsistent and un-necessary, which is somewhat counter to the point of the metric.

Milliard for example, 1000 millions. It's not very complicated, it's pretty logical if you ask me but I grew with the long system.

[slipn]

American here and I never even thought that there was another way of saying it/system to it. Thanks for the video!

[Kuntantee]

We're using short system and it's better because 1.000.000 too much increment for practice in any field. Both are logical in terms of math but language-wise-logic barely means anything...

[Khalai]

I'm Canadian and at least to English speaking Canada one billion = 10^9. I learned french as a second language growing up, and we learned the word for billion in french, but it was interesting that we never learned that it actually meant a different number. And honestly, while I consider myself fairly well read, I had never even heard of the long system until a couple years ago when I visited family in the UK.

On a side note, in Canada we are pure metric system, and have been since the 80s. Its interesting to see my parents talk about things in imperial units (I was born in 1985) yet you see almost no references to it. Only the skilled trades (carpenters, plumbers, electricians etc) seem to still use imperial, and that's only because the numbers feel nicer.

[Gotjuice]

A thousand millions, that is a billion.

[Adam Jensen]

1 followed by 9 zeros, that's how I've always heard it.

[Frozenbeef]

1 000 000 000 of course :S

Other
1 0.75%

made me laugh for some reason :S

[Oevaag]

I always call 1000m a "financial" billion as I always felt the Americans (and now rest of the world) do it that way to make themselves sound richer than they actually are :P For us in the UK a billion = a million million, trillion = a million, million, million, quadrillion = a million, million, million, million and so on From waht I gather though. It does mean my teacher was totally wrong when talking about world population whan I was a kid ^^

[Oerba Yun Fang]

1,000,000,000

And I like it that way. The long system is long, and I don't have time for that crap!

[Reeve]

1000^1=One Thousand
1000^2=One Million
1000^3=One Billion
1000^4=One Trillion
1000^5=One Quadrillion

Makes sense to me.

[Deleted]

Well in my language (slovakian).
1 000 000 000 = miliarda
1 000 000 000 000 = bilión
1 000 000 000 000 000 = biliarda
1 000 000 000 000 000 000 = trilión

But I know that in english it means 1 000 000 000.

[Deleted]

From Sweden and I use the long system. I'm aware of the short system when I speak english. But I think the long is much more natural.

[Deleted]

I always use the logical method.

[Oerba Yun Fang]

From Sweden and I use the long system. I'm aware of the short system when I speak english. But I think the long is much more natural.

Funny thing is, "more natural" is quite subjective, isn't it? If I were to have to all of a sudden get used to a billion being twelve zeroes, it wouldn't feel very natural at all.

[Deleted]

1 Billion is 10 to the power of 9 no matter where you live.

And yes, I'm from Sweden and I'm well aware that 1 biljon is 10 to the power of 12. But biljon is not the proper translation of bilion.

[Atrea]

Nobody uses the long scale anymore, just Internet nerds who feel the need to try to be difficult while at the same time expressing how unamerican they are.
It's jingoism tbh.