What is a 'Trillion'?

[Hingeless Rotor]

Hi guys,

Got a question from a mate who was reading info on GPS systems. He came up with an interesting quote;

“The accuracy of the caesium clock is soooooo good that it will only lose 1 second over 30000 years.” He then went on to say that it is equivalent to 1 nanosecond or one trillionth of a second.

I knew that…….

What we want to know is how many zero’s is that after the 1, or to the power of what? We ask this because where we come from a billion is a thousand millions but elsewhere it is ‘supposedly’ a million millions……..etc etc.

I have been known to quote ‘squillions’ when referring to girls and hours on type.

Cheers

[Woolf]

in Mainland Europe you would find the following:

Million - 1,000,000
Milliarde - 1,000,000,000
Billion - 1,000,000,000,000
Billiarde - 1,000,000,000,000,000
Trillion - 1,000,000,000,000,000,000


I don't know if this is correct in the UK or US ........

Woolf

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

Woolf

That used to be how it was in the UK. But the US uses billion for the nineth power of ten (1,000,000,000) and trillion for the 12th power (1,000,000,000,000) and the cultural superiority ;) of the US has resulted in the UK starting to use US nomenclature. So when Gordon Brown plans on spending a billion pounds, he's being less generous than he might be!

[MaxNg]

One months aberdeen allowance



And it,s not enough !

:D

[Vfrpilotpb]

I have a lot of the Zeros, but am still working on the number 1:D

[Training Risky]

Whereas I have the number 1, a couple of zeros, and am searching for another 4 to add to the chain.

[Robbo Jock]

And I'm hoping to move the zeros from the wrong side of the one to the right side. (And, if I had my 'druthers, add a 9 between the 1 and its accompanying zeros)