From: utzoo!decvax!microsof!uw-beave!uw-june!palmer
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Title: Re: billion
Article-I.D.: uw-june.313
Posted: Thu Feb 24 10:28:03 1983
Received: Fri Feb 25 08:01:01 1983
References: houti.215


	One American Billion = one thousand million = 10**9 = 1,000,000,000
			(I think this is called a milliard in Britain)
	British Billion = one million million = 10**12 = 1,000,000,000,000
			(what Americans call a trillion)

	What is a British trillion, 10**18?

	Physical scientists get around this by sing prefixes:
		a gigabuck = $10**9 , about the price of a third of a
				bare-bones aircraft carrier
		a terrabuck = $10**12 , about the size of the U.S. national
				debt.

		David Palmer