Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
This section illustrates several systems for naming large numbers, and shows how they can be extended past vigintillion . Traditional British usage assigned new names for each power of one million (the long scale ): 1,000,000 = 1 million; 1,000,0002 = 1 billion; 1,000,0003 = 1 trillion; and so on. It was adapted from French usage, and is ...
For larger numbers, starting with 10 9, the two systems differ. For identical names, the long scale proceeds by powers of one million, whereas the short scale proceeds by powers of one thousand. For example, on the short scale, "one billion" means one thousand million (1,000,000,000), whereas in the long scale, it means one million million ...
Trillion. Visualization of 1 trillion (short scale) A Rubik's cube, which has about 43 trillion (long scale) possible positions. Trillion is a number with two distinct definitions: 1,000,000,000,000, i.e. one million million, or 10 12 (ten to the twelfth power ), as defined on the short scale. This is now the meaning in both American and ...
Science fiction: The number 42, in the novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything which is calculated by an enormous supercomputer over a period of 7.5 million years. Biology: Each human cell contains 46 chromosomes.
Billion. Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or 10 9 (ten to the ninth power ), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of English; it has long been established in American English and has since become common in ...
1,000,000,000 (one billion, short scale; one thousand million or one milliard, one yard, [1] long scale) is the natural number following 999,999,999 and preceding 1,000,000,001. With a number, "billion" can be abbreviated as b, bil[citation needed] or bn. [2] [3] In standard form, it is written as 1 × 109.
An order-of-magnitude estimate of a variable, whose precise value is unknown, is an estimate rounded to the nearest power of ten. For example, an order-of-magnitude estimate for a variable between about 3 billion and 30 billion (such as the human population of the Earth) is 10 billion. To round a number to its nearest order of magnitude, one ...
The Ancient Greeks used a system based on the myriad, that is, ten thousand, and their largest named number was a myriad myriad, or one hundred million. In The Sand Reckoner, Archimedes (c. 287–212 BC) devised a system of naming large numbers reaching up to. essentially by naming powers of a myriad myriad. This largest number appears because ...