From: utzoo!decvax!duke!bcw
Newsgroups: net.space
Title: Re: a billion billion billion dollars
Article-I.D.: duke.2548
Posted: Mon Sep 20 19:07:29 1982
Received: Tue Sep 21 09:57:39 1982

From:	Bruce C. Wright @ Duke University
Re:	A billion billion billion dollars

Well, in English this phrase is ambiguous.  It isn't at all clear what it
means;  if the "billion" is British usage than each of the "billions" have
a value 1000 times the American value, and if it is intended to mean
something like 3 x 1 billion or 1000 x 1000 x 1 billion it might be reasonable
in some dialect (not in any standard English I know).  I don't know what he
was trying to convey by the phrase but the precise meaning is obviously not
important - he's trying to express an impossibly large number.

Whether this is a literate way of doing so is another question.

			Bruce C. Wright @ Duke University