What comes after a trillion (If there is such a number)????

Factual Questions
1

I know that a billion comes after a million and it is a million million, but does a trillion mean a billion billion and if soo, what comes after that. Just one of these irrelevant thoughts i had…Thanks =)

2

Quadrillion------and then Quintillion

3

A trillion and one!

(sorry!)

I think Europe has a different nomenclature, but here’s the American version:

1,000 = thousand
1,000,000 = million
1,000,000,000 = billion
1,000,000,000,000 = trillion
1,000,000,000,000,000 = quadrillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000 = quintillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = sextillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = septillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = octillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = nontillion
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = dectillion

I think. Didn’t Cecil do a column on this?

4

A billion is not a million million but rather a thousand million. (It used to be the former in Britain, although they seem to have changed to the U.S. system in recent years – or can anyone make a more precise statement about that?) Adding another 3 zeroes each the following numbers follow: trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion… Using further Latin prefixes, you can of course continue this ad infinitum.

5

A trillion and one?

6

Yes, in other European languages, the order is different. In German, it is as follows (with dots used instead of commas, btw):

1.000.000 (eine) Million
1.000.000.000 Milliarde
1.000.000.000.000 Billion
1.000.000.000.000.000 Billiarde
1.000.000.000.000.000.000 Trillion

etc.

7

Hello, Frazer, and welcome to the Straight Dope Message Board.

As phouka semi-recalls, SDStaff Dex authored the definitive answer to this question in a Mailbag item last year.

It’s usually a good idea to check the Archives before posing a question here.

Livin’ on Tums, vitamin E and Rogaine

8

The only usage of quadrillion I’ve ever seen was the use of the word “quad” for quadrillion BTUs to describe national energy consumption.

9

Manhatt already gave the link to all you need to know about names of large numbers, but I’d like to say that the times that you need numbers like quadrillion and umpfantasticillion is when you’re counting money in Unca Scrooge’s moneybin.

10

10^33 (US) is 'decillion, not dectillion.

Upper limit to the number of atoms in the universe = 10^87. But here it says the number of electrons in same is only 10^80-88.

I guess they’ve gone out fashion, but there used to be:

‘googol’ = 10^100 and
'googolplex = 10^(10^100)

, at least in the head of someone called Milton Sirotta, according to my dictionary.

Ray (You need any larger #s, we supply them at extra cost – astronomical. But I thought the Scotch were. . .well. . .Scotch, and wouldn’t need to be so excessive.)

11

OK, here’s the Mailbag article on googol and googolplex…

<url>http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mgoogol.html</url>

Probably should have been included in the first article, but what the heck, this way we get two slots for the price of one.
[Note: This message has been edited by CKDextHavn]

12

Of course in some countries’ currencies at some times, being a quadrillionaire is not quite as good as it sounds.

13

So, is that quadrillion 10^15 (a US, Canada quadrillion) or (10^6)^4 (a European quadrillion)?

BTU, British Thermal Unit, is in Canada the old Imperial measure of bulk energy usage; I’m not sure what we use now, probably joules with a really big exponent.

Presumably the US uses the BTU, but doesn’t call it Imperial. But there may be a difference, as the old Canadian (i.e. Imperial) gallon was different from the US gallon (4.54 L versus 3.85 L). Anyone with a more up-to-date knowledge able to correct me?

14

Side note:

Japanese has words not only for 100 (hyaku) and 1,000 (sen) but also for 10,000 (man). So, pronouncing numbers larger than 10,000 takes some thought for us Westerners. You have to teach yourself to say not “one hundred thousand” but “ten ten-thousands”. A million is “one hundred ten-thousands”. Funky, eh?

15

Author Dent is always after Trillian, but comes after Zaphod Beeblebrox. Proven by the fact that Trillian left the party with Zaphod Beeblebrox, and not Author Dent.

42

16

I though the British use a system that mirrored French, i.e.

        1,000,000   million
    1,000,000,000   milliard
1,000,000,000,000   billion

1,000,000,000,000,000 billiard
etc.

Is is still the case?

17

American nomenclature:

NAME…ZEROES…“SERIES NAME”

thousand…3
million…6…1s
billion…9
trillion…12
quadrillion…15
quintillion…18
sextillion…21
septillion…24
octillion…27
nonillion…30
decillion…33…10s
undecillion…36
duodecillion…39
tredecillion…42
quattuordecillion…45
quintdecillion…48
sexdecillion…51
septemdecillion…54
octodecillion…57
novemdecillion…60
vigintillion…63…20s
unvigintillion…66
duovigintillion…69
trevegintillion…72
quattuorvigintillion…75
quintovigintillion…78
sextovigintillion…81
septemvigintillion…84
octovigintillion…87
novemvigintillion…90
trigintillion…93…30s
untrigintillion…96
duotrigintillion…99
ten duotrigintillion.100 <------------------also called the “googol”
trevigintillion…102
etc to>>>
quadragintillion…123…40s
quinquagintillion…153…50s
sexagintillion…183…60s
septuagintillion…213…70s
octogintillion…243…80s
nonagintillion…273…90s
centillion…303…100s

Designated Optional Signature at Bottom of Post

18

Thank you. That should do for the time being.

19

Nono, you forgot a zenzizenzizenzic!

20

[quote]
1,000,000,000,000,000 billiard[/quot]

This provides an excellent reason not to play billiards with Bill Gates or Donald Trump! :slight_smile: