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?