On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 12:23:14 +0200, Jens Ropers <ropers(a)ropersonline.com> wrote:
IMO the "milliard" convention is absolute
rubbish, because it
effectively breaks the decimal system and I'm glad it's in decline in
the English speaking world. I wish the same were true for its use in
other languages as well.
OK, we're drifting off-topic now, but I just wanted to say that I
completely disagree. There's nothing "decimal" about
million->billion->trillion going up in factors of a thousand rather
than of a million, it's completely arbitrary. And etymologically, a
billion being a million million makes sense: the "bi-" means "two",
and it has twice as many zeros; similarly, a European trillion has
three times as many zeros as a million, hence "tri-". What are there
three of in an American trillion?
It's a moot point, because the American version seems to have become
the accepted standard in the English-speaking world (better than just
remaining ambiguous for eternity, I suppose), but the old way is far
more logical. [I've actually heard it suggested that the change was so
that people could call themselves "billionaires", but I'm not sure how
much truth there can be in that]
--
Rowan Collins BSc
[IMSoP]