# People Who Don't Know What A Billion Is **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 13, 2017, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755 "2017-02-13T14:49:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/41 "2017-02-14T15:48:17Z")
For the record, in modern spoken Hebrew, 1,000,000,000 is “milliard”, while 1,000,000,000 is “trillion”, although I’ve had diehard pedants (by which I mean my wife) occasionally correct the latter to “billion”. (She’s left-wing, while I’m more of a centrist). ---
**Author:** ![Jefferson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8491ac/32.png) [@Jefferson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jefferson)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/42 "2017-02-14T16:19:39Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > well, let’s see what Jefferson is on about. > > So, “far-left Mark Little” asked if it was a ‘thousand million’, which is correct in current usage, and given that this program is apparently in Britain, understandable given the official change but still-used different meaning as mentioned above. Matt, the Jefferson-described "left-wing’ host, was wrong by calling it a hundred million, while Ms. Hamilton was imprecise by saying “a lot of money” but certainly not incorrect…at least for me, a billion is a lot of money. > > So, some folks on a program few of us outside the British Isles have ever heard of are imprecise on the value of a billion, and this somehow proves something? I am not impressed. > > I am impressed that the SDMB membership turned it into a learning session regarding the milliard and changes in the British meaning of billion over the years to the point of frustrating ol’Jefferson to nag us to respond to him…well done, all. > > IMHO as always. YMMV. You all right? Have a lie down. mate. Preferably in a darkened room. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/43 "2017-02-14T16:28:03Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Japan (and apparently China) do something similar working in powers of 10^4 instead of 10^3. It’s one of several old Chinese systems using the same characters, somewhat analogous to Western ‘short scale’, ‘long scale’. The one where each numeral starting at 10,000 is 10,000 times times the previous one is predominant in China, Korea and Japan although an alternate system where each step is a factor of 10 is used in certain references (‘megabyte’ in Chinese uses 兆 as 10^6 whereas in the general step-by-four system it’s 10^12). Unlike eg. the Western calendar system, 10^3 steps for big numbers have never got much foothold in those countries. As has been mentioned, saying a billion is a 100 million is just ignorant. And the ‘long scale’ numbers were only common in British English and now basically obsolete. However ‘milliard’ does persist slightly in some financial markets where a billion is called a ‘yard’. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/44 "2017-02-14T21:52:20Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Alessan** : > > For the record, in modern spoken Hebrew, 1,000,000,000 is “milliard”, while 1,000,000,000 is “trillion”,… I suspect a typo here. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/45 "2017-02-14T22:01:24Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I suspect a typo here. Yeah, the second was supposed to be 1,000,000,000,000. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/46 "2017-02-14T22:54:12Z")
> [@Jefferson](#): > > I was watching the Wright Stuff this morning and the far-Left ex-soap actor Mark Little when reviewing the papers asked what a billion was, enquiring if it was a thousand million. Matt the Left-wing host, said it was a hundred million. Christine Hamilton said it was certainly a lot of money. A female Labour MP didn’t add anything to speak of (but may have muttered it’s a lot). > > Would you expect these people to know what a billion is? At least the host who has been doing the job for 15 years and the politician. What does anyone’s political position have to do with their mathematical literacy? ---
**Author:** ![Jefferson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8491ac/32.png) [@Jefferson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jefferson)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/47 "2017-02-17T18:57:32Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > What does anyone’s political position have to do with their mathematical literacy? They are always complaining about how little is spent on all manner of things by government. Plus I was giving a little background for those who don’t know them. And they tend to be the sorts who happily admit they can’t do numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/48 "2017-02-17T22:05:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > To be fair, the word “billion” has traditionally had different meanings in the British Isles and America (though I think the American usage has now mostly become the worldwide standard). Sure, if you ignore that part of the surface of the globe known in colloquial language as “the rest of the world”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2017, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/49 "2017-02-17T23:43:58Z")
> [@Jefferson](#): > > They are always complaining about how little is spent on all manner of things by government. Plus I was giving a little background for those who don’t know them. And they tend to be the sorts who happily admit they can’t do numbers. That’s a lot of passive language. Don’t you have confidence in your ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2017, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/50 "2017-02-18T00:13:49Z")
Well, I’ve never heard of any of these people other than Mrs. Hamilton, the British counterpart of Mrs. Clinton in all their corrupt glory, and I’m British. So I suppose I learned they existed. I didn’t want to learn that, though. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2017, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/51 "2017-02-18T02:55:30Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > (now we have to work on “aluminium” and “zed”) Not to nit pick but i think you have spelled it wrong AlooMenEeum. There ya go ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2017, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/52 "2017-02-18T05:58:06Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Left-wingers?? Of course not. Reported. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2017, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/53 "2017-02-18T19:44:38Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > A British trillion used to mean 10[sup]18[/sup], or the equivalent of a quadrillion in the US. > > [Oxford Languages | The Home of Language Data](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/how-many-is-a-billion) Nitpick: 10[sup]18[/sup] is 1 quintillion in US-speak. ---
**Author:** ![Jefferson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8491ac/32.png) [@Jefferson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jefferson)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2017, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/54 "2017-02-20T17:05:14Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > Well, I’ve never heard of any of these people other than Mrs. Hamilton, the British counterpart of Mrs. Clinton in all their corrupt glory, and I’m British. So I suppose I learned they existed. > > I didn’t want to learn that, though. Do you take pride in not knowing things? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2017, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/55 "2017-02-20T18:59:25Z")
Thai has single-syllable words for each of 10, 100, 1000, and 10,000 and 100,000 and 1,000,000. And therefore two-syllable compound words for 10 million, 100 million, billion, 10 billion, 100 billion, trillion. This is very convenient. I’ve noticed that country folk and businessmen have a different way of saying numbers like 280,000. The businessman will say (the equivalent of) “twenty-eight ten-thousand;” farmers say “two hundred-thousand eight.” ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2017, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/56 "2017-02-20T20:43:46Z")
> [@Jefferson](#): > > Just a reminder, my question is: Would you expect these people to know what a billion is? Before we can answer that we are trying to determine if _we_ know what a billion is! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2017, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/57 "2017-02-21T04:54:09Z")
> [@Jefferson](#): > > Do you take pride in not knowing things? Most of modern culture is alien to me — to waste one’s very short number of hours in a lifetime looking at and learning about individual gibbering clowns of politicians or entertainers one is not attracted to or learning about any activity that personally bores one, will not warm one in the grave. That is not a question of morals, simply of time-economics. I am aware of the Greek definition, non-pejorative, of uninterest in politics as idiotic, yet there were far fewer aspects to politics in his day. A modern-day graduate of Georgetown has to study many more disciplines and balances, and perhaps be much more intelligent, than the most brilliant politician in Ancient Greece. That could possibly be Pericles. Never warmed up to him myself: very like Kennedy. ---
**Author:** ![mattm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@mattm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mattm)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755/58 "2017-02-24T07:38:58Z")
So how many is a [Brazillion](http://www.jumbojoke.com/three_brazilian_soldiers.html)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-dont-know-what-a-billion-is/779755.md?page=2)