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How big is a billion? - Numberphile

30 videos recommended on HN
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1 HN user recommended this explainer1 month2014–2024 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN links it whenever a thread hits the ambiguity of whether a billion is 10^9 or 10^12.

Numberphile explains the long and short scales for naming large numbers, covering millions, billions, trillions, milliards and the Greek myriad, with James Grime and Tony Padilla.

“explains it all quite nicely.” (HN, 2014)

1 recommendations · 6 citations · Explainers

7 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@Toucan Feb 2014 Recommends
on HN thread Has goto fail been fixed yet?
I don't think that's right. 10^6 is a million in both languages. 10^9 used to be a milliard in British English but is no longer used. It is now referred to as a billion. 10^12 used to be a billion in British English but is now referred to as a trillion. Edit: [this video] explains it all quite nicely.
Explains short versus long scale billion definitions

Citations, criticism and jokes

@pwinnski Aug 2018 Cites it
on HN thread Apple is worth over $1B,000
A thousand-billion is the old way of referring to numbers, but the UK switch to the American style in the 1970s. Strangely, the old style of billion, thousand-billion, trillion, thousand-trillion, quadrillion, etc, makes much more sense. What is a billion two of, anyway? What is a trillion three of? And so on? [this video]
@throw0101a Aug 2020 Cites it
on HN thread The ‘-ize’ have it (2012)
> What other spelling idiosyncrasies are there that I can get on my high horse about? Long and short number scales? * [link] Is "billion" a thousand million (10^9) or a million million (10^12)? Numberphile video: * [this video] TL;DR: billion = bi-million = two of 10^6 = 10^{6x2} = 10^12. trillion = tri-million = 10^{6x3} = 10^18, and not 10^12. quad rillion, pent ….
Long and short number scales for billion
@throw0101a Apr 2022 Cites it
on HN thread As the scale of science expands, so does the language of prefixes
See also the video "How big is a billion?" by the Numberphile channel: > We discuss millions, billions, trillions and centillions is this film about the long and short scales. We also touch on quadrillions, sextillions, milliards, billiards and the Greek myriad. * [this video] Does a "billion" have 9 zeros or 12 zeros? * [link] * [link]
Discusses long and short scales, milliards and myriads
@throw0101c Sep 2022 Cites it
on HN thread OptiFi Program Incident Report
MM is for mille-mille (French?), thousand-thousand, so 1000-1000 or 1-000-000. See "How big is a billion?" from Numberphile : * [this video] * [link]
Long versus short scale billions
@throw0101d Dec 2024 Cites it
on HN thread Fun facts about SQLite
> Since SQLite is used extensively in every smartphone, and there are more than 4.0 billion (4.0e9) smartphones in active use, each holding hundreds of SQLite database files, it is seems likely that there are over one trillion (1e12) SQLite databases in active use. I find the scientific notation of the counts amusing given the sometimes different meanings of "billion" and "trillion" (especially with English as a second language): * [link] * [this video] * [link] (bonus: on French numbers)
Long versus short scale billions

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