NewScientist The Last Word - Tag 'Long-Scale' details

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Recently a news report used the word 'thousand billion' and I wondered why they did not just say 'trillion'? But according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(numbers)#Smaller_than_10.E2.88.9230) a thousand billion is one above a trillion.

Here's the problem:

A billion is 1 followed by 9 zeroes.

A trillion is 1 followed by 12 zeroes.

A thousand billion is 1 followed by 15 zeroes.

Is Wikipedia wrong? The difference between 12 and 9 is 3, which is a thousand in terms of zeroes. So, isn't a trillion and a thousand billion the same thing?

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Answered by Jon-Richfield
on 2010-08-17 12:35:01

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I do not know the date of this question, but if it is correct then the Wikipedia entries must since have been amended.

Look up the Wikipedia article "Long and short scales". It covers the subject very informatively, in fact very impressively.

In response to the direct question, if you are working in the Long scale, then a thousand billion is indeed 10^15, whereas in the short scale it is 10^12.

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