Where can I find written a definitive British English list of large numbers.

[Clouddancer]

10^6: Million. 10^9: Billion. 10^12 Trillion all appear in the Collins dictionary (“a definitive British English list of large numbers up to a Trillion!).

I guess one thousand Trillion 10^15 (I think the Americans call it a Quadrillion), and one million trillion 10^18 are acceptable?

Is there a definitive British English list of large numbers after a Trillion? / Where is it written?

Many thanks in advance

[bibblebub]

Wikipedia is always checking https://en.wikipedia....rd_dictionary_numbers

[bibblebub]

oops - missed out the word worth

[Clouddancer]

Hi bibblebub

I had viewed: https://en.wikipedia....rd_dictionary_numbers , which refers to 10^15 (10 to the power of 15) as a Quadrillion, 10^18 as Quintillion, 10^21 as Sextillion etc. Are these the words correct in British English?

[bibblebub]

To be honest they are not words that tend to be bandied very much if ever but since that table is correct for a billion I suspect that it is correct for the larger numbers too, although I have myself used the word milliard before and always thought that it was traditionally British not necessarily European.

[jake-the-peg]

To be honest there is no such thing as definitively correct British English

Dictionaries do not define words in this way they document their use

We fell into line with American usage of the Billion and Trillion in 1974

Numbers above that are not really in common usage and so don't really belong in dictionaries.

In science you would never hear (or at least I have never heard) anyone refer to say 10³³ as a Decillion they would always use standard form and say "ten to the 33"

I see from wikipedia that

//In 2001, Russ Rowlett, Director of the Center for Mathematics and Science Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill proposed that, to avoid confusion, the Latin-based short scale and long scale systems should be replaced by an unambiguous Greek-based system for naming large numbers that would be based on powers of one thousand.[15]//

I wonder how many people proposed in return that Russ Rowleet avoided confusion by "Getting a life" and find something more profitable to do than solving non existant problems

[Clouddancer]

Thank you Jake-the-peg

This question came about after an American English language book I’ve been reading referred to 45 Quintillion (a term I wasn’t familiar with!).

So perhaps in lay:
Million
Billion
Trillion
One Thousand Trillion
One Million Trillion
Etc., Etc.

And in Notation:
10^6 (10 to the power of 6)
10^9
10^12
10^15
10^18
Etc., etc.

[Hopkirk]

The BBC have a comparison using doormats, if it's any help.

http://news.bbc.co.uk.../business/7980209.stm

[mibn2cweus]

45 quintillion miles would be 3 times the distance of the Andromeda Galaxy.

45 quintillion seconds would be 100 times the age of our universe.

The number of possible permutations of an assembled Rubik's Cube is approximately forty-three quintillion, two hundred fifty-two quadrillion, three trillion, two hundred seventy-four billion, four hundred eighty-nine million, eight hundred fifty-six thousand.

[chakka35]

Although I do realise that words change their meanings over time, I cannot accept such changes when the meaning is built-in to the word itself. Consider the following comparison:

BRITISH AMERICAN
Billion A million to the second A million to the one-and-
power halfth power

Trillion A million to the third A million to the second
power power

Quadrillion A Million to the fourth A million to the two-and
power halfth power

.... and so absurdly on in the American case.

(A thousand million, as has already been pointed out, is a milliard.)

To those who say that even words like those are entitled to change their meanings, will we ever call a human being a quadruped and a horse a biped? Will a plain figure with three sides be called a pentagon? Will two babies born to a woman at the same time be called quins?

Of course not. So why on earth do we think that numbers beginning with bi-, tri-, quad- and so on can be changed?

[chakka35]

Sorry about that. The columns I wrote out have not been reproduced. Ignore that gibberish. I'll start again:

The British BIllion is a million to the second power. The American billion is a million to the one-and-a-halfth power.

The British TRIllion is a million to the third power. The American is a billion to the second power.

The British QUADrillion is a million to the fourth power. The American is a million to the two-and-a-halfth power

And so absurdly on in the American case.

The rest opf my last post still applies.

[jno]

chakka: because we can. Language is what we make of it; we are its masters, it is not ours. That's why we ship things by road, have dilapidated wooden houses and make big quantum leaps. Words routinely cut loose from their origins and move into other territory. We may regret it (I hate the use of 'impact' as a verb) but we can't stop others using it, much less stop them understanding it.

[chakka35]

jno, you seem to have missed my point, which is that I know all about the way words change their meanings, but that it makes no sense to do so when the meaning is built-in.

Unless, of course, you would be quite happy if people started to call themselves quadrupeds, vehicles with two wheels tricycles, musical groups of four octets, solo performances duets...and so on.

So why call a million to the two-and-a- halfth power a billion? Or a million to the second power a trillion?

Those of us who care about the language are entitled to say occasionally: "Hold on a minute; let's think about that." Aren't we?

[chakka35]

Sorry ... "a million to the one-and-a-halfth power a billion" is what I should have said.

[MoonRocker]

It's 10^9 and 10^12 that cause the most contention. 10^9 is a Billion in US but a Milliard in UK, 10^12 is a Billion in the UK but a trillion in the US. However the UK versions are hardly ever used.