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How big is a billion? - Numberphile
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Subtitles (233 segments)
JAMES GRIME: As an antipathian,
how big is a billion?
TONY PADILLA: No, I'm not even going to go there, man.
JAMES GRIME: Well, what were you taught?
What were you taught at school?
TONY PADILLA: OK.
So there's basically two ways of interpreting
what a billion is.
There is the correct English way.
And there's the incorrect American way.
I think I was taught a billion is 1,000 million.
JAMES GRIME: Right, exactly.
Now, that's what I was taught at school as well.
Although in Britain the older generation would say a billion
is not 1,000 million.
They would say it was a million million.
TONY PADILLA: There's a beautiful mathematical logic
to the old way of doing and it, which I just don't see in
the new way.
JAMES GRIME: If we ask our viewers, I reckon about half
of them will answer a billion has nine zeroes.
That's 1,000 million.
And I reckon the rest of them will say a billion has 12
zeroes, which is a million million.
And it depends on how old you are and where in
the world you live.
Let's be honest.
Real mathematicians and real scientists, if they've got a
large number, they're not really going to use billions
and trillions.
They actually use standard form.
So if I want to say something with 27 zeroes, you'd write
something like this.
You'd be 5 times 10 to the 27th.
But if you're reading articles in the newspapers, on BBC
website, they're going to use words like
billions and trillions.
Now, there is dispute.
There are two systems.
There's the short system and the long system.
So let's have a look at the short system first.
So the short system is based on powers of 1,000.
Let's start off with the number 1.
Now, it is a power of 1,000.
It's 1,000 to the power 0, So that's 1.
What's the next step up?
Well, you get 1,000, don't you?
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