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