sci.math FAQ: Name of Large Numbers

[Alex Lopez-Ortiz]

Archive-name: sci-math-faq/largenumbers
Last-modified: February 20, 1998
Version: 7.5

Names of Large Numbers

Naming for 10^k.
k American European SI--Prefix

-33 revo
-30 tredo
-27 syto
-24 fito
-21 ento
-18 quintillionth atto
-15 Quadrillionth femto
-12 trillionth pico
-9 Billionth nano
-6 Millionth micro
-3 Thousandth milli
-2 Hundredth centi
-1 Tenth deci
1 Ten deca
2 Hundred hecto
3 Thousand kilo
4 Myriad
6 Million Million mega
9 Billion Milliard giga
12 Trillion Billion tera
15 Quadrillion Billiard peta
18 Quintillion Trillion exa
21 Sextillion Trilliard hepa
24 Septillion Quadrillion otta
27 Octillion Quadrilliard nea
30 Nonillion Quintillion dea
(Noventillion)
33 Decillion Quintilliard una
36 Undecillion Sextillion
39 Duodecillion Sextilliard
42 tredecillion Septillion
45 quattuordecillion Septilliard
48 quindecillion Octillion
51 sexdecillion Octilliard
54 septendecillion Nonillion
(Noventillion)
57 octodecillion Nonilliard
(Noventilliard)
60 novemdecillion Decillion
63 VIGINTILLION Decilliard

6*n (2n-1)-illion n-illion
6*n+3 (2n)-illion n-illiard

100 Googol Googol
303 CENTILLION
600 CENTILLION

10^100 Googolplex Googolplex

%From: bal...@wimsey.com (Bruce Balden)
%Date: Fri, 11 Oct 1996 12:46:39 GMT

Chinese System

1 yi4
10 shi2
100 bai3
1000 qian2
10000 wan4
10^6 yi bai3 wan (i.e. 100 times wan)
10^8 yi1
10^12 ???

The American system is used in:
US,
...

The European system is used in:
Austria,
Belgium,
Chile,
Germany,
the Netherlands,
Italy (see exception)
Scandinavia

%Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 22:47:48 -0700
%From: Torbjorn Larsson <eka...@eka.ericsson.se>
%Subject: Sci.math FAQ

Note that all prefixes are to be spelled with a leading small letter. (As are
all SI units, even those that honors persons by using their names.)

- All prefixes with n < 0 should have a small letter abbreviation.
Eg. 1 picoampere = 1 pA. (SI unit rule explanation: person name unit
is abreviated using a capital letter)

- All prefixes with n > 0 should have a large letter abbreviation.
Eg. 1 gigameter = 1 Gm. (SI unit rule explanation: non-person name unit
is abreviated in lower case). _Except_ the mass unit: 1 kilogram is
abreviated as kg (compare to Km. for kilometer).

h...@cix.compulink.co.uk (Hugo van der Sanden):
To the best of my knowledge, the House of Commons decided to adopt the
US definition of billion quite a while ago - around 1970? - since which
it has been official government policy.

d...@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter):
The interesting thing about all this is that originally the French used
billion to indicate 10^9, while much of the remainder of Europe used
billion to indicate 10^12. I think the Americans have their usage from
the French. And the French switched to common European usage in 1948.

go...@ing.puc.cl (Gonzalo Diethelm):
Other countries (such as Chile, my own, and I think
most of Latin America) use billion to mean 10^12, trillion to mean
10^18, etc. What is the usage distribution over the world population,
anyway?
--
Alex Lopez-Ortiz alop...@unb.ca
http://daisy.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o Assistant Professor
Faculty of Computer Science University of New Brunswick