IMHO, no one goofed. The writers probably figured that no one would check the math and used the line just to sound “scientific”. Star Trek writers, OTOH, get a new one ripped on a regular basis for not doing the proper research.
An English billion is 10^12, while an American billion is 10^9, while an American trillion is 10^12.
GNU bc tells me that e(l(10^12)/17) = 5.0802, while e(l(10^15)/17) = 7.627 and e(l(10^18)/17) = 11.450, more or less.
So — unless I’m missing something obvious — the Twilight Zone computer was mistaken, whether we’re talking American trillions or British trillions. Was the correctness of this computer’s answer crucial to the plot?
I saw that episode. Perhaps the computer was derelict in its duty, concerned as it was more with a personal relationships with Wally Cox than with doing the work he (or others) had assigned it.
The ‘official’ British “billion” is the American “trillion” or 1000 American billions (though in common, and financial, usage the American meaning is used increasingly).
I can just see some writer (not necessarily British – East Coast, Canadian, almost anything would do) correctly using “billion”, only to have some brain-dead Hollywood flunky panic and change the scriptto reflect the “right” words.
In short, a presumption of error, based on the clueless self-aggrandizing arrogance of those who stumble into power in the studio system. Consider that a British writer would have used “billion” for “trillion”, not the other way around
Geez, you wanna talk mistakes, how about one episode where a guy is sentenced to live on an asteroid in our solar system that is so Earth-like, he can walk around in his street clothes! (It’s the one with Jack Warden; the guy gets a lifelike female android for company and he falls in love with it. Daring and thought-provoking for a 50s TV series. It was filmed in Death Valley, BTW.)
Then there are the several episodes where they refer to planets or stars being “more than a million miles away.” Well, technically, that’s correct. 4.3 light-years IS more than a million miles!
As for the OP, I’m going with the “writer goofed” theory.
Sorry Jab, you’re right.
Remember “Mr. Bevis”? Henry Jones is Orson Bean’s guardian angel; Bean changes from oddball to 1960-style yuppie, and doesn’t like it. Mr. Hempstead (Jones) talks turkey to Bevis (Bean):
HEMPSTEAD: What is it you really want? You know that for a fellow like you, a $10-a-week raise is the most that even I can get for you! Frankly, to use the vernacualar, Bevis, I don’t dig you!
BEVIS: Mr. Hempstead–I don’t mean to sound ungrateful…but the things I like–the things I believe in–they’re all worth considerably more to me than ten dollars a week!
HEMPSTEAD: So I’m to take it you prefer the bow tie and Old Ironsides.
BEVIS: I’m afraid that seems to be the case.
HEMPSTEAD: You realize it’s going to be just the way it was before: No car; no job; no place to live at the moment!
BEVIS nodding: It’s been that way before. Is it complicated?
HEMPSTEAD: Hardly. (Snaps his fingers)
(Bevis is back in the bar, but sobers up quickly. His car is parked, intact, at the curb–and he even gets out of an illegal-parking ticket when the fire hydrant reappears next to the cop’s cycle!)
Mr. Bevis ends the movie as the beloved oddball–but still under Mr. Hempstead’s aegis (“Still with you, Bevis!”)
