
In most English-speaking countries today, one billion equals 1,000,000,000, or 109: a one followed by nine zeros. (This is also the meaning of the word when used in Wikipedia, though it is preferable to avoid the term altogether, for reasons given below.) One billion (American usage) is thus equal to one thousand millions, or one thousandth of a Trillion. For a list of occurrences of numbers of this magnitude, see the article 1 E9. In most other countries, a word similar to "billion" indicates 1,000,000,000,000, or 1012, or one million millions. For example: French language, Norwegian language, Dutch language ''biljoen'', German language ''billion'', Spanish language ''billón'', Italian language ''bilione'' and Swedish language ''billion'' or ''biljon''. The value 109 is called something similar to the English word "milliard" in these countries. For example, French and Norwegian ''milliard'', Dutch ''miljard'', German ''Milliarde'', Spanish ''millardo'', Italian ''miliardo'', Polish language ''miliard'' and Swedish language ''miljard'' or ''milliard''. (Spanish commonly uses "thousand million": ''mil millones''.) See also False friends. Origin late 17th century: From French, prefix bi- (twice) and -illion (from million). In imitation of one million million. Trillion: one million million million and so on. United Kingdom and Australia traditionally employed the international usage of 1012, but have recently largely switched to the U.S. version of 109. Some non-English speaking countries are exceptions to the above rule and match the U.S. usage. A Brazilian Portuguese dictionary indicates 1012 = ''trilhão'', 109 = ''bilhão''. Similarly, transliterating from Greek, 1012 = ''trisekatommyrio'', 109 = ''disekatommyrio'' (see myriad). == History == *In 1475, Jehan Adam recorded the words "bymillion" and "trimillion" (for 1012 and 1018). *In 1484 the French mathematician Nicolas Chuquet in his article "Triparty en la science de nombres" [http://www.miakinen.net/vrac/nombres#lettres_zillions] used the words ''byllion,'' ''tryllion,'' ''quadrillion,'' ''quyllion,'' ''sixlion,'' ''septyllion,'' ''ottyllion,'' and ''nonyllion.'' Although Chuquet is often cited as defining these words to mean powers of a million, Robert Munafo has pointed out [http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/math/largenum.html#chuquet] that this is incorrect. Oddly enough, there is one passage in the work where they clearly refer to 1012, 1018, etc. and another passage in which he is clearly using them to mean 109, 1012. ::Au lieu de dire mille milliers, on dira million, au lieu de dire mille millions, on dira byllion, etc..., et tryllion, quadrilion ... octylion, nonyllion, et ainsi des autres si plus oultre on voulait proceder. French: "Instead of saying one thousand thousand, one may say million; instead of saying one thousand million, one may say billion, — and trillion, quadrillion, ... octillion, nonillion, and others as well, as far as you wish to go." Chuquet's work had little direct influence because his work was not published until the 1870s, but most of it was copied (without attribution) by Estienne de la Roche for a portion of his 1520 book, Larismetique. *Around 1550 Pelletier used the system based on powers of 106, adding the term "milliard" for 109. This system was used in England and Germany and part of the rest of Europe, but in France and in the USA a different system became established where the term billion signifies 109. * In 1926, H. W. Fowler's ''Modern English Usage'' noted "It should be remembered that this word does not mean in American use (which follows the French) what it means in British. For to us it means the second power of a million, i.e. a million millions (1,000,000,000,000); for Americans it means a thousand multiplied by itself twice, or a thousand millions (1,000,000,000), what we call a ''milliard.'' Since ''billion'' in our sense is useless except to astronomers, it is a pity that we do not conform." * 1948 the "Conférence des Poids et des Mesures" proposed to use the original Pelletier system in France. * 1961 the "Journal Officiel" (the French official gazette) decided in favor of this proposal. * Some dictionaries recommend: "The terms billion, trillion, quintillion, quatrillion, quintillion and sextillion are to be avoided because of the ambiguity" * In 1974 British prime minister Harold Wilson abandoned the use of billion for 1012, by explaining before the House of Commons the fact that "billion" from now on in British government statistics has the American use i.e. means 109. But there seems still to be uncertainty about this: On one side, Graham Dane, a native English speaker, writes in the forum of the Online-vocabolary LEO.org: :The term ''milliard'' is very rare in British English. ''Billion'' has meant ''thousand million'' in financial writings for many years now, and is almost universal in other fields. Anyone using billion to mean ''million million'' is likely to be misunderstood. On the other side, in the FAQs of alt.usage.english (the part by Ken Moore) states: :Despite this, the U.S. meaning is still rare outside journalism and finance, its introduction having served merely to create confusion. Throughout the U.K., a common response to the question "What do you understand by 'a billion'?" would be: "Well, I mean a million million, but I often don't know what other people mean." Few schoolchildren are confident of the meaning, though, again, 1012 seems to be preferred. One alternative approach is to use SI prefixes, that is, "Giga" for 109 and "Tera" for 1012. However, this alternative is often only used with specific units that commonly have such magnitudes. An additional problem is that if the unit is a computing term, the term may be interpreted as being a power of 2 instead of a power of 10 (see Binary prefix for more information on one approach to avoiding this). == See also == * number names * SI prefixes * Binary prefixes * American and British English differences * [http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/html/result.xhtml?url=/tp/deutsch/inhalt/glosse/13184/1.html&words=billion A short history of the term "billion"] [http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/17069/1.html and its correction] (articles in German) == Sources == * Non-English words: Pocket dictionaries from Collins (London), Oxford, and Kunnskapsforlaget (Oslo). * ''millardo'': The Real Academia Española [http://www.rae.es web site] There are still two meanings of the number "billion".
*The original meaning, since the beginnings of Modern Times, is "a million of a million" (= 10^12). This system, the so-called "long scale", was maintained or readopted all around the world, excepting the USA, Puerto Rico and Brazil. *In the late 17th Century made one a change in the way of writing of the large numbers. Before the numbers were separated in groups of six digits, afterwards one came to the modern grouping to only three digits. Now, a minority of scientists, especially in Italy and France, would change the original meaning of the number billion to be equal to 10^9, but there are no reason to. Under influence of these French advisers and to be distinguished from British use, the USA adopted this reformed meaning finally during the 19th century. Currently it's the system preferred in financial world ''(it looks like to be more)''; therefore journalism in many English-speaking countries like the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia often uses this meaning, termed the "short scale". In France, the reformed system—an erroneous system, according to the Littré dictionary—had never obtained the unanimity. The French government clarified the situation while confirming, officially and explicitly, the original system. [http://www.ensmp.net/pdf/1961/decr-61-0501.pdf Décret 61-501] (page 14, note 3A). So they switched back to the main system in use all around the world. Russia and Turkey, however, use officially the short scale for numbers above billion, but 10^9 is called communally "milliard", like for example, French and Norwegian ''milliard'', Dutch ''miljard'', German ''Milliarde'', Spanish ''millardo'', Italian ''miliardo'', Polish language ''miliard'' and Swedish language ''miljard'' or ''milliard''. (Spanish commonly uses "thousand million": ''mil millones''.) Other examples of countries where "billion", according the original long scale, indicates (1 Million)2 or 1 000 000 000 000 or 1012 or one million millions: French language, Norwegian language, Dutch language ''biljoen'', German language ''Billion'', Spanish language ''billón'', Italian language ''bilione'' and Swedish language ''billion'' or ''biljon''. Brazil is the only not English-speaking country using entirely the short scale with 1012 = ''trilhão'', 109 = ''bilhão''. In Greece the international word "billion" is not in use, but similar to short scale: 109 = ''disekatommyrio'' (("two hundred myriad"), 1012 = ''trisekatommyrio'', ("three hundred myriad").
== History == *In 1475, Jehan Adam recorded the words "bymillion" and "trimillion" (for 1012 and 1018). *In 1484 the French mathematician Nicolas Chuquet in his article "Triparty en la science de nombres" [http://www.miakinen.net/vrac/nombres#lettres_zillions] used the words ''byllion,'' ''tryllion,'' ''quadrillion,'' ''quyllion,'' ''sixlion,'' ''septyllion,'' ''ottyllion,'' and ''nonyllion.'' Robert Munafo now affirms ''(without any proof ! )'' that, there were one passage in which Chuquet was using them to mean 109, 1012, etc. [http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/math/largenum.html#chuquet] But the original writing clearly refers to 1012, 1018, etc. Chuquet's work had little direct influence because his work was not published until the 1870s, but most of it was copied (without attribution) by Estienne de la Roche for a portion of his 1520 book, Larismetique. *Around 1550 Jacques Pelletier du Mans while maintaining the system of the great scale of Chuquet, proposed to call the traditional "thousands of millions" now "milliards". This system was largely adopted in England and Germany and the rest of Europe. *Early 17th Century, in France and Italy a minority of scientists would change the sens of billion to be now 109. *Middle 18th Century, this reformed meaning of the term "billion" was brought to the New-England colonies. *Early 19th Century the first attested schoolbooks teaching the system of the short scale in the USA. *In 1926, H. W. Fowler's ''Modern English Usage'' noted "It should be remembered that this word does not mean in American use (which follows the French) what it means in British. For to us it means the second power of a million, i.e. a million millions (1,000,000,000,000); for Americans it means a thousand multiplied by itself twice, or a thousand millions (1,000,000,000), what we call a ''milliard.'' Since ''billion'' in our sense is useless except to astronomers, it is a pity that we do not conform." * 1948: the "International Conférence des Poids et des Mesures" proposed to use the original Adam-Chuquet-Pelletier system. * 1961: the "Journal Officiel" (the French official gazette) confirms the system of long scale. * Some dictionaries recommend: "The terms billion, trillion, quatrillion, quintillion and sextillion are to be avoided because of the ambiguity" * In 1974 British prime minister Harold Wilson abandoned the use of billion for 1012, by explaining before the House of Commons the fact that "billion" from now on in British government statistics has the American use i.e. means 109. * In 1994 the Italian government too confirms officially the international use of the term "billion" [http://www.frareg.com/news/legislazione/ambiente/direttiva_1994_55_CE.pdf] (.pdf page 12) == Confusing use == ''Conclusion:'' The confusing use exists only in English language (USA) and Portuguese language (Brazil). On one side, Graham Dane, a native English speaker, writes in the forum of the online dictionary [http://leo.org LEO.org]: :''The term milliard is very rare in British English. Billion has meant thousand million in financial writings for many years now, and is almost universal in other fields. Anyone using billion to mean million million is likely to be misunderstood.'' On the other side, in the FAQs of alt.usage.english (the part by Ken Moore) states: :''Despite this, the U.S. meaning is still rare outside journalism and finance, its introduction having served merely to create confusion. Throughout the U.K., a common response to the question "What do you understand by 'a billion'?" would be: "Well, I mean a million million, but I often don't know what other people mean." Few schoolchildren are confident of the meaning, though, again, 1012 seems to be preferred.'' == Alternative approaches == One alternative approach is to use SI prefixes, that is, "Giga" for 109 and "Tera" for 1012. However, this alternative is often only used with specific units that commonly have such magnitudes. An additional problem is that if the unit is a computing term, the term may be interpreted as being a power of 2 instead of a power of 10 (see Binary prefix for more information on one approach to avoiding this). == See also == * 1 E9 - for a list of occurrences of numbers of this magnitude * number names * SI prefixes * Binary prefixes * American and British English differences * False friends * [http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/html/result.xhtml?url=/tp/deutsch/inhalt/glosse/13184/1.html&words=billion A short history of the term "billion"] [http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/17069/1.html and its correction] (articles in German) == Sources == * Non-English words: Pocket dictionaries from Collins (London), Oxford, and Kunnskapsforlaget (Oslo). * ''millardo'': The Real Academia Española [http://www.rae.es web site]
''From VfD:'' *This page truly confuses me. I do not know if this is an edit gone wrong or what. There is a page for the number billion already apart from this one. I do not know if this one has information not contained in the other one. If it does, this information should obviously be transferred before deletion. User:Indrian 03:55, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC) *It's a user subpage. I don't think (although I could be wrong) it's even a candidate for VfD because of that. Let Dpbsmith do what he will with it. User:Yelyos 04:15, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC) **There's currently a discussion going on about how to handle the deletion of user subpages - see Wikipedia talk:Votes for deletion#Deleting user subpages. —User:Stormie 05:18, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC) *Can't really follow: On one day it is suggested, that people should prepare larger articles in a user subpage (instead of posting a substub and complaining about its listing on VfD), and a few days later a user subpage (which obviously is "work in progress") turns up right here... Leave him alone, it's his terrain. --User:Palapala 05:53, 2004 Aug 19 (UTC) *Did you try the incredibly radical step of asking Dpbsmith what the reasoning behind the subpage was? -- User:Cyrius|User talk:Cyrius 06:26, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC) *Keep. Deleting user subpages should be a rare exception, as in the case of IndigoGenius, or Information-Ecologist. Drafts in subpages = good thing. User:Ambi 06:59, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC) *Keep: User subpages are not VfD fare unless they violate very specific policies. This doesn't. User:Geogre 12:43, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC) *Oops! I did not realize this was a user subpage (though I suppose it should have been obvious). Please disregard my complaints. User:Indrian 14:03, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC) *comment I hope Dpbsmith finishes it up and ''publishes'' it as I was about to do a similar article myself.--User:Nabla 17:18, 2004 Aug 19 (UTC) *Keep. No case to answer. User:Andrewa 20:10, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC) *Of course keep. User:Bishonen 23:21, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC) :Comment. I sometimes use my user subpages when I'm making big revisions to a big article; or when I'm developing something that I don't think is a decent article until it has reached a certain degree of finish; or when I'm doing work that involves big cut-and-pastes from various places. Or sometimes when I just want a handy Wiki-WYSIWYG editor. I get nervous about losing my work if I just keep using "Show preview," and saving the Wikitext in a text editor is a pain... Then when it gets done I blast it out into the world all in one piece. As Ambi says, I thought "Drafts in subpages = good thing." :As for "billion," I've gotten a little discouraged about that. If User:Nabla wants to use anything from my work-in-progress, go ahead. It seems as if there are a fair number of people who hold the unaccountable-to-me belief that one of the meanings of billion is somehow right and the other is wrong. I learned the fascinating piece of information from Robert Munafo that Chuquet's own work is actually inconsistent; in one place he uses ''byllion'' to mean 1012 and in other he uses it to mean 109. I mentioned this in Billion, and was surprised when someone interpolated the phrase "without any proof." Apparently they didn't even bother to click on the link where Munafo quotes the text from one part of the work and provides a facsimile page image from the other part! Even when people from England tell me that usage is mixed, both meanings of "billion" are in wide use, and 109 is currently taught in schools and used in official government reports, and even when the usage in France has changed back and forth several times and User:Anthere tells me that in her experience people say ''mille milliard'' rather than ''billion,'' there are apparently enough people determined to uphold The Truth that I think it will be quite laborious to get any of the articles—Chuquet, Billion, Names of large numbers—into a form that is well-written ''and'' stable ''and'' NPOV. User:Dpbsmith_User_talk:dpbsmith">User:Dpbsmith|User:Dpbsmith User_talk:dpbsmith 23:59, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)
*Keep. Obviously a work in progress. User:Fire Star 00:29, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)
*Keep. User sub pages should not be deleted except as a means to harrass designated trolls, users who challenge the ruling sysops, or unpopular people we don't like. Free speech except for unpopular minority speech that deviates from sysop-determined community consensus! User:Orthogonal 22:52, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)
**That was unnecessary and petty. -- User:Cyrius|User talk:Cyrius 23:03, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)
''end moved discussion''
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Dpbsmith/Billion:
Dpbsmith/Billion
Dpbsmith/Billion
Dpbsmith/Billion
In most English-speaking countries today, one billion equals 1,000,000,000, or 109: a one followed by nine zeros. (This is also the meaning of the word when used in Wikipedia, though it is preferable to avoid the term altogether, for reasons given below.) One billion (American usage) is thus equal to one thousand millions, or one thousandth of a Trillion. For a list of occurrences of numbers of this magnitude, see the article 1 E9. In most other countries, a word similar to "billion" indicates 1,000,000,000,000, or 1012, or one million millions. For example: French language, Norwegian language, Dutch language ''biljoen'', German language ''billion'', Spanish language ''billón'', Italian language ''bilione'' and Swedish language ''billion'' or ''biljon''. The value 109 is called something similar to the English word "milliard" in these countries. For example, French and Norwegian ''milliard'', Dutch ''miljard'', German ''Milliarde'', Spanish ''millardo'', Italian ''miliardo'', Polish language ''miliard'' and Swedish language ''miljard'' or ''milliard''. (Spanish commonly uses "thousand million": ''mil millones''.) See also False friends. Origin late 17th century: From French, prefix bi- (twice) and -illion (from million). In imitation of one million million. Trillion: one million million million and so on. United Kingdom and Australia traditionally employed the international usage of 1012, but have recently largely switched to the U.S. version of 109. Some non-English speaking countries are exceptions to the above rule and match the U.S. usage. A Brazilian Portuguese dictionary indicates 1012 = ''trilhão'', 109 = ''bilhão''. Similarly, transliterating from Greek, 1012 = ''trisekatommyrio'', 109 = ''disekatommyrio'' (see myriad). == History == *In 1475, Jehan Adam recorded the words "bymillion" and "trimillion" (for 1012 and 1018). *In 1484 the French mathematician Nicolas Chuquet in his article "Triparty en la science de nombres" [http://www.miakinen.net/vrac/nombres#lettres_zillions] used the words ''byllion,'' ''tryllion,'' ''quadrillion,'' ''quyllion,'' ''sixlion,'' ''septyllion,'' ''ottyllion,'' and ''nonyllion.'' Although Chuquet is often cited as defining these words to mean powers of a million, Robert Munafo has pointed out [http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/math/largenum.html#chuquet] that this is incorrect. Oddly enough, there is one passage in the work where they clearly refer to 1012, 1018, etc. and another passage in which he is clearly using them to mean 109, 1012. ::Au lieu de dire mille milliers, on dira million, au lieu de dire mille millions, on dira byllion, etc..., et tryllion, quadrilion ... octylion, nonyllion, et ainsi des autres si plus oultre on voulait proceder. French: "Instead of saying one thousand thousand, one may say million; instead of saying one thousand million, one may say billion, — and trillion, quadrillion, ... octillion, nonillion, and others as well, as far as you wish to go." Chuquet's work had little direct influence because his work was not published until the 1870s, but most of it was copied (without attribution) by Estienne de la Roche for a portion of his 1520 book, Larismetique. *Around 1550 Pelletier used the system based on powers of 106, adding the term "milliard" for 109. This system was used in England and Germany and part of the rest of Europe, but in France and in the USA a different system became established where the term billion signifies 109. * In 1926, H. W. Fowler's ''Modern English Usage'' noted "It should be remembered that this word does not mean in American use (which follows the French) what it means in British. For to us it means the second power of a million, i.e. a million millions (1,000,000,000,000); for Americans it means a thousand multiplied by itself twice, or a thousand millions (1,000,000,000), what we call a ''milliard.'' Since ''billion'' in our sense is useless except to astronomers, it is a pity that we do not conform." * 1948 the "Conférence des Poids et des Mesures" proposed to use the original Pelletier system in France. * 1961 the "Journal Officiel" (the French official gazette) decided in favor of this proposal. * Some dictionaries recommend: "The terms billion, trillion, quintillion, quatrillion, quintillion and sextillion are to be avoided because of the ambiguity" * In 1974 British prime minister Harold Wilson abandoned the use of billion for 1012, by explaining before the House of Commons the fact that "billion" from now on in British government statistics has the American use i.e. means 109. But there seems still to be uncertainty about this: On one side, Graham Dane, a native English speaker, writes in the forum of the Online-vocabolary LEO.org: :The term ''milliard'' is very rare in British English. ''Billion'' has meant ''thousand million'' in financial writings for many years now, and is almost universal in other fields. Anyone using billion to mean ''million million'' is likely to be misunderstood. On the other side, in the FAQs of alt.usage.english (the part by Ken Moore) states: :Despite this, the U.S. meaning is still rare outside journalism and finance, its introduction having served merely to create confusion. Throughout the U.K., a common response to the question "What do you understand by 'a billion'?" would be: "Well, I mean a million million, but I often don't know what other people mean." Few schoolchildren are confident of the meaning, though, again, 1012 seems to be preferred. One alternative approach is to use SI prefixes, that is, "Giga" for 109 and "Tera" for 1012. However, this alternative is often only used with specific units that commonly have such magnitudes. An additional problem is that if the unit is a computing term, the term may be interpreted as being a power of 2 instead of a power of 10 (see Binary prefix for more information on one approach to avoiding this). == See also == * number names * SI prefixes * Binary prefixes * American and British English differences * [http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/html/result.xhtml?url=/tp/deutsch/inhalt/glosse/13184/1.html&words=billion A short history of the term "billion"] [http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/17069/1.html and its correction] (articles in German) == Sources == * Non-English words: Pocket dictionaries from Collins (London), Oxford, and Kunnskapsforlaget (Oslo). * ''millardo'': The Real Academia Española [http://www.rae.es web site] There are still two meanings of the number "billion".
*The original meaning, since the beginnings of Modern Times, is "a million of a million" (= 10^12). This system, the so-called "long scale", was maintained or readopted all around the world, excepting the USA, Puerto Rico and Brazil. *In the late 17th Century made one a change in the way of writing of the large numbers. Before the numbers were separated in groups of six digits, afterwards one came to the modern grouping to only three digits. Now, a minority of scientists, especially in Italy and France, would change the original meaning of the number billion to be equal to 10^9, but there are no reason to. Under influence of these French advisers and to be distinguished from British use, the USA adopted this reformed meaning finally during the 19th century. Currently it's the system preferred in financial world ''(it looks like to be more)''; therefore journalism in many English-speaking countries like the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Australia often uses this meaning, termed the "short scale". In France, the reformed system—an erroneous system, according to the Littré dictionary—had never obtained the unanimity. The French government clarified the situation while confirming, officially and explicitly, the original system. [http://www.ensmp.net/pdf/1961/decr-61-0501.pdf Décret 61-501] (page 14, note 3A). So they switched back to the main system in use all around the world. Russia and Turkey, however, use officially the short scale for numbers above billion, but 10^9 is called communally "milliard", like for example, French and Norwegian ''milliard'', Dutch ''miljard'', German ''Milliarde'', Spanish ''millardo'', Italian ''miliardo'', Polish language ''miliard'' and Swedish language ''miljard'' or ''milliard''. (Spanish commonly uses "thousand million": ''mil millones''.) Other examples of countries where "billion", according the original long scale, indicates (1 Million)2 or 1 000 000 000 000 or 1012 or one million millions: French language, Norwegian language, Dutch language ''biljoen'', German language ''Billion'', Spanish language ''billón'', Italian language ''bilione'' and Swedish language ''billion'' or ''biljon''. Brazil is the only not English-speaking country using entirely the short scale with 1012 = ''trilhão'', 109 = ''bilhão''. In Greece the international word "billion" is not in use, but similar to short scale: 109 = ''disekatommyrio'' (("two hundred myriad"), 1012 = ''trisekatommyrio'', ("three hundred myriad").
== History == *In 1475, Jehan Adam recorded the words "bymillion" and "trimillion" (for 1012 and 1018). *In 1484 the French mathematician Nicolas Chuquet in his article "Triparty en la science de nombres" [http://www.miakinen.net/vrac/nombres#lettres_zillions] used the words ''byllion,'' ''tryllion,'' ''quadrillion,'' ''quyllion,'' ''sixlion,'' ''septyllion,'' ''ottyllion,'' and ''nonyllion.'' Robert Munafo now affirms ''(without any proof ! )'' that, there were one passage in which Chuquet was using them to mean 109, 1012, etc. [http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/math/largenum.html#chuquet] But the original writing clearly refers to 1012, 1018, etc. Chuquet's work had little direct influence because his work was not published until the 1870s, but most of it was copied (without attribution) by Estienne de la Roche for a portion of his 1520 book, Larismetique. *Around 1550 Jacques Pelletier du Mans while maintaining the system of the great scale of Chuquet, proposed to call the traditional "thousands of millions" now "milliards". This system was largely adopted in England and Germany and the rest of Europe. *Early 17th Century, in France and Italy a minority of scientists would change the sens of billion to be now 109. *Middle 18th Century, this reformed meaning of the term "billion" was brought to the New-England colonies. *Early 19th Century the first attested schoolbooks teaching the system of the short scale in the USA. *In 1926, H. W. Fowler's ''Modern English Usage'' noted "It should be remembered that this word does not mean in American use (which follows the French) what it means in British. For to us it means the second power of a million, i.e. a million millions (1,000,000,000,000); for Americans it means a thousand multiplied by itself twice, or a thousand millions (1,000,000,000), what we call a ''milliard.'' Since ''billion'' in our sense is useless except to astronomers, it is a pity that we do not conform." * 1948: the "International Conférence des Poids et des Mesures" proposed to use the original Adam-Chuquet-Pelletier system. * 1961: the "Journal Officiel" (the French official gazette) confirms the system of long scale. * Some dictionaries recommend: "The terms billion, trillion, quatrillion, quintillion and sextillion are to be avoided because of the ambiguity" * In 1974 British prime minister Harold Wilson abandoned the use of billion for 1012, by explaining before the House of Commons the fact that "billion" from now on in British government statistics has the American use i.e. means 109. * In 1994 the Italian government too confirms officially the international use of the term "billion" [http://www.frareg.com/news/legislazione/ambiente/direttiva_1994_55_CE.pdf] (.pdf page 12) == Confusing use == ''Conclusion:'' The confusing use exists only in English language (USA) and Portuguese language (Brazil). On one side, Graham Dane, a native English speaker, writes in the forum of the online dictionary [http://leo.org LEO.org]: :''The term milliard is very rare in British English. Billion has meant thousand million in financial writings for many years now, and is almost universal in other fields. Anyone using billion to mean million million is likely to be misunderstood.'' On the other side, in the FAQs of alt.usage.english (the part by Ken Moore) states: :''Despite this, the U.S. meaning is still rare outside journalism and finance, its introduction having served merely to create confusion. Throughout the U.K., a common response to the question "What do you understand by 'a billion'?" would be: "Well, I mean a million million, but I often don't know what other people mean." Few schoolchildren are confident of the meaning, though, again, 1012 seems to be preferred.'' == Alternative approaches == One alternative approach is to use SI prefixes, that is, "Giga" for 109 and "Tera" for 1012. However, this alternative is often only used with specific units that commonly have such magnitudes. An additional problem is that if the unit is a computing term, the term may be interpreted as being a power of 2 instead of a power of 10 (see Binary prefix for more information on one approach to avoiding this). == See also == * 1 E9 - for a list of occurrences of numbers of this magnitude * number names * SI prefixes * Binary prefixes * American and British English differences * False friends * [http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/html/result.xhtml?url=/tp/deutsch/inhalt/glosse/13184/1.html&words=billion A short history of the term "billion"] [http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/17069/1.html and its correction] (articles in German) == Sources == * Non-English words: Pocket dictionaries from Collins (London), Oxford, and Kunnskapsforlaget (Oslo). * ''millardo'': The Real Academia Española [http://www.rae.es web site]
Dpbsmith/Billion
''From VfD:'' *This page truly confuses me. I do not know if this is an edit gone wrong or what. There is a page for the number billion already apart from this one. I do not know if this one has information not contained in the other one. If it does, this information should obviously be transferred before deletion. User:Indrian 03:55, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC) *It's a user subpage. I don't think (although I could be wrong) it's even a candidate for VfD because of that. Let Dpbsmith do what he will with it. User:Yelyos 04:15, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC) **There's currently a discussion going on about how to handle the deletion of user subpages - see Wikipedia talk:Votes for deletion#Deleting user subpages. —User:Stormie 05:18, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC) *Can't really follow: On one day it is suggested, that people should prepare larger articles in a user subpage (instead of posting a substub and complaining about its listing on VfD), and a few days later a user subpage (which obviously is "work in progress") turns up right here... Leave him alone, it's his terrain. --User:Palapala 05:53, 2004 Aug 19 (UTC) *Did you try the incredibly radical step of asking Dpbsmith what the reasoning behind the subpage was? -- User:Cyrius|User talk:Cyrius 06:26, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC) *Keep. Deleting user subpages should be a rare exception, as in the case of IndigoGenius, or Information-Ecologist. Drafts in subpages = good thing. User:Ambi 06:59, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC) *Keep: User subpages are not VfD fare unless they violate very specific policies. This doesn't. User:Geogre 12:43, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC) *Oops! I did not realize this was a user subpage (though I suppose it should have been obvious). Please disregard my complaints. User:Indrian 14:03, Aug 19, 2004 (UTC) *comment I hope Dpbsmith finishes it up and ''publishes'' it as I was about to do a similar article myself.--User:Nabla 17:18, 2004 Aug 19 (UTC) *Keep. No case to answer. User:Andrewa 20:10, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC) *Of course keep. User:Bishonen 23:21, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC) :Comment. I sometimes use my user subpages when I'm making big revisions to a big article; or when I'm developing something that I don't think is a decent article until it has reached a certain degree of finish; or when I'm doing work that involves big cut-and-pastes from various places. Or sometimes when I just want a handy Wiki-WYSIWYG editor. I get nervous about losing my work if I just keep using "Show preview," and saving the Wikitext in a text editor is a pain... Then when it gets done I blast it out into the world all in one piece. As Ambi says, I thought "Drafts in subpages = good thing." :As for "billion," I've gotten a little discouraged about that. If User:Nabla wants to use anything from my work-in-progress, go ahead. It seems as if there are a fair number of people who hold the unaccountable-to-me belief that one of the meanings of billion is somehow right and the other is wrong. I learned the fascinating piece of information from Robert Munafo that Chuquet's own work is actually inconsistent; in one place he uses ''byllion'' to mean 1012 and in other he uses it to mean 109. I mentioned this in Billion, and was surprised when someone interpolated the phrase "without any proof." Apparently they didn't even bother to click on the link where Munafo quotes the text from one part of the work and provides a facsimile page image from the other part! Even when people from England tell me that usage is mixed, both meanings of "billion" are in wide use, and 109 is currently taught in schools and used in official government reports, and even when the usage in France has changed back and forth several times and User:Anthere tells me that in her experience people say ''mille milliard'' rather than ''billion,'' there are apparently enough people determined to uphold The Truth that I think it will be quite laborious to get any of the articles—Chuquet, Billion, Names of large numbers—into a form that is well-written ''and'' stable ''and'' NPOV. User:Dpbsmith_
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