From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!brunix!gh Newsgroups: net.nlang Title: Re: billion Article-I.D.: brunix.1684 Posted: Thu Feb 24 10:12:55 1983 Received: Fri Feb 25 05:19:33 1983 References: houti.215 The U.S. billion is 10^9, trillion = 10^12 etc. British billion = 10^12, trillion = 10^18 etc The Germans follow the British; the American system was based on the French, but now the French have changed to follow the British, leaving the U.S. out of steop with the rest of the world (as the usual in all matters of units and measures). The entry at "number" in Webster's New Collegiate gives all this and more, including numbers up to centillion. Also of interest is Webster's second definition of "billion" -- "a very large number".