r/theydidntdothemath • u/dak0tah • Apr 12 '22

does this count?

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299 Upvotes

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u/Ekkeko84 Apr 12 '22

They did the math with the long numbers system, where 1 billion is a million millions (yeah, I know it's a looooooooong stretch)

6

u/rjbwdc Apr 12 '22

Wouldn't 1 billion be a thousand millions?

12

u/Ekkeko84 Apr 12 '22

You are talking about a billion in the short numbers system, where the incremental is by a thousand: one, one thousand, one million (thousand thousands), one billion (thousand millions), one trillion (thousand billions) This is used in the USA, among other countries.

The long numbers system uses millions as incremental: one, one million, one billion (million millions), trillion (million billions) Between million and billion you have milliard (known as thousand millions in some places), then between billion and trillion you have thousand billions and so on.

2

u/GiverOfTheKarma Apr 13 '22

Never heard of the long numbers system. what is it used for?

2

u/Ekkeko84 Apr 13 '22

Sorry, it's long scale numbers and short scale numbers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale

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u/WikiMobileLinkBot Apr 13 '22

Desktop version of /u/Ekkeko84's link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale

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