maths question

[rob81]

How many million make a billion?

[tompaine]

1000

[Avatar]

1,000,000

[matt_london]

In USA its 1,000. In UK its 1,000,000. The USA version seems to be the recognised definition these days.
When you hear talk on TV / Radio about a Billion dollars or Billion pounds they mean one thousand million.

[tompaine]

Avatar is incorrect. In modern usage a billion always refers to the american usage of 1000 million. So when Gordon Brown says 2billion he is referring to 2000 million. when people say roman abromovich is a billionaire they (obviously) do not mean he has 1 million million pounds but rather, 1000 million pounds. Finally when world population figures are given as 6 billion this too means 6000 million.

[Loosehead]

and for a gold star what is the correct name for 1000,000,000 ?

[Quizmonster]

A milliard, Loosehead.

[Loosehead]

The gold star is yours QM, though if I'd thought of it I'd have barred you from answering!

[chakka35]

Conventionally a billion is a thousand million nowadays(which is actually a milliard, as already explained). Linguistically and mathematically it can never be anything other than a million million: the 'bi' indicating a million to the second power.
In the American system, which we now seem to have adopted for some strange reason, a billion is a million to the one-and-a-halfth power, a trillion a million to the second power, a quadrilion a million to the two-and-a-halfth power, a quintillion a million to the third power....and so absurdly on. We must be potty to subscribe to such a daft system. All down to general illiteracy and innumeracy, I suppose.

[jollygreen]

So what's a trillion? I thought it was a thousand american billion. 1,000,000,000,000

[chakka35]

An American trillion is what you say - a million million.
A mathematical trillion is a million to the third power: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000.