How many zeros in a billion?

[tomr]

How many zeros follow the 1 in a billion? Why do accountants use the term but engineers don't? And finally, does it depend on your age?

[Kandang]

In an American and English billion there are 9 zeros following the one. (1,000,000,000). Elsewhere in the world, there are twelve zeros following the one. (1,000,000,000,000). This would equal one trillion under the American or English system.

[Trace-face]

The problem it is different in different countries. In Australia and I believe the Uk as well, a billion is a million million - that is 12 zeroes but in the US a billion is a thousand million - that is 9 zeroes. Hope that helps!

[brummielad]

In the UK, a billion is definately a thousand million, i.e 1,000,000,000.

[tomr]

You see? the very problem. In the UK it should be 12 zeros and 9 in the US. Dictionary.com's 3rd definition says 'an indefinately large number' my feeling is that that is what the government think we understand it to be. I'm an engineer .... 10^12 - Unambiguous.

[Hamish]

As to what is a billion, see above, but as to engineering (and scientific) terms there are a range of prefixes for example for the measurement of meters: 10^18 1Exemeter, 10^15 1 (I can't remember this one) 10^12 1 Terameter, 10^9 1 Gigameter, 10^6 1 Megameter, 10^3 1 Kilometer, 10^0 1 Meter, 10^-3, 1 milimeter, 10^-6 one micrometer, 10^-9 one nanometer, 10^-12 one picometer, 10^-15 one femptometer and 10^-18 one atometer. There are a range of other units, for exmaple a light year with is the distance traveled by light in onbe year, about 94.7 Terameters (I think) or an Anstrong 1^-10 meters or 0.1 nanometers. these terms are convenient for the scale the scientist/engineer is working at, but are also understandable by other workers in other fields and don't carry the ambiguity of 'a billion'. Hope this helps, Hamish

[TheHitMaker]

Sorry Einstein, you've got it the wrong way round. A billion is now 1,000,000,000 in the UK, but used to be 1,000,000,000,000

[tomr]

TheHitMaker - This is my reason for asking the question, when did it change and how is that change documented? ITS-90 thouroughly documents the changes to the Celsius temperature range (and the change is small - insignificant to most people), but who and where is the documentation for a thousandfold change in financial reporting? If you like your pint you will be most upset if the US pint is introduced rather than the UK one.

[tomr]

Sorry TheHitMaker, my last comment was aimed at Einstein's response but I didn't spot the mix-up. Ironical considering the subject .

[tomr]

Sadly, a colleague of mine has just found an answer to this one and Iwill have to stop whinging on about it! Thanks folks. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/large.html gives: "In recent years, American usage has eroded the European system, particularly in Britain and to a lesser extent in other countries. This is primarily due to American finance, because Americans insist that $1 000 000 000 be called a billion dollars. In 1974, the government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced that henceforth "billion" would mean 10^9 and not 10^12 in official British reports and statistics. "

[mally_kenyon]

just the 1 billiOn