Computer Census
Jess Anderson
What counts as "one computer" in the answer to this question?
How many micros are made each day?
In "Cohabiting with Computers," Joseph F. Traub, editor,
Wm. Kaufmann, publishers (1985), two contributors make what
struck me as very large claims. One was that the number of
computers is greater than the number of people in the world,
which I take to be 5 million million. Even counting digital
watches, I find it hard to believe there are 5 billion
computers. Another author claims there are more computers
than people in the United States, which I take to mean 220+
million. Could be, but that's a lot of computers! This same
author also says that more than one million microcomputers
are being manufactured each day.
Does anyone know the facts here? If you will e-mail to me,
I will summarize to the net (include a suggestion where the
summary should appear, please).
--
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==The chrysalis knows nothing of spring or autumn.=======(Chuang Tsu)=======
Tim Pointing
> ...
>One was that the number of
>computers is greater than the number of people in the world,
>which I take to be 5 million million.
Obviously, we have a displaced Brit here. The 5 billion referred to
so frequently are Sagan (a.k.a. American) billion equal to a thousand million.
Even so, I still have trouble believing the above claim.
--
Tim Pointing, DCIEM
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or uw-beaver!utcsri!dciem!tim
or seismo!mnetor!lsuc!dciem!tim
Bill Did I Miss Something Here? Wisner
> computers is greater than the number of people in the world,
5 million million would be 5,000,000,000,000; five million millions. That there
is five trillion..
--
Bill Wisner
..ihnp4!jack!wolf!billw
Property is theft. -- P. J. Proudhon
Property is liberty. -- P. J. Proudhon
Property is impossible. -- P. J. Proudhon
Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
tim@uw-nsr
>> [...] One was that the number of
>> computers is greater than the number of people in the world,
>> which I take to be 5 million million. [...]
>
>5 million million would be 5,000,000,000,000; five million millions. That there
>is five trillion..
>
of "Computer Census". The English word billion is ambiguous because in the
United States it means 1 thousand million whereas in the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland I'm pretty sure that it means
1 million million. So both of you are correct: 5,000,000,000,000 can be either
five billion or five trillion depending on where you happen to be at the time.
Evan Marcus
In article <1...@wolf.UUCP> bi...@wolf.UUCP (Bill "Did I Miss Something Here?" Wisner) writes:
>> [...] One was that the number of
>> computers is greater than the number of people in the world,
>> which I take to be 5 million million. [...]
>
>5 million million would be 5,000,000,000,000; five million millions. That there
>is five trillion..
>--
>Bill Wisner
As I understand it, in England, 'billion' does not mean the same thing as
it does in the US. In the UK, a billion=10^12, while in the US a billion
= 10^9. They call 10^9 a 'milliard'. A Britisher watching American news
would almost certainly be confused hearing that there are ~5 billion people
in the world now.
BTW, a trillion is 10^18 in England, and 10^12 in the US, and so on.
--
NAME: Evan L. Marcus
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mce...@uiucdcsb.cs.uiuc.edu
> [miniflame on the way] I'm even
> more embarrassed by the paucity of imagination in people whose
> only purpose in responding is to point it out. The answers I'm
> after are not on earth-shaking matters, but it would be nice to
> have responses that speak to the *obvious* question [end of mini-
> flame].
Well, since you put it so obnoxiously,
BEGIN RETURN FLAME
I was one of the "unimaginative" people who corrected you. I sent that
correction because it was a factual matter that directly affected your
understanding of the question that was being asked. I did not address
the question because the answer required FACTS, not IMAGINATION, and
I had no facts to contribute. Would you prefer that I used my imagination
and made up an answer?
FLAME OFF.
Scott McEwan
{ihnp4,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!mcewan
I used to believe in nihilism, but now I don't believe in anything.
Randy Rzasa
If a billion is 10^12 and a trillion is 10^18 in Britain, and 10^9 is
a milliard, then is 10^12 called a billiard?
Sounds like some "britishers" might be confused if they heard about
billiard games in the U.S.
ag...@ccvaxa.uucp
I'm sure the true Brits on the net will correct me,
but this first generation child was under the impression
that the European number naming system went like this:
1 - units
10 - tens
100 - hundred
1000 - thousands
10,000 - ten thousand
100,000 - hundred thousand
1,000,000 - thousand thousand, or, a million
10^7, 10^8, 10^9 - ten, hundred, thousand million
- a thousand million = a milliard
10^10... - ten thousand million...
10^12 - a million million, or, a billion
10^13 - 10 billion .. a million billion, or,
10^18 - a million million million, or, a trillion
10^24 - a billion billion, or, a million million million,
- or, by extension, a billiard (:-)
ie. a billiard would be 10^24, not 10^18.
I am always annoyed by Americans mocking the European system; it is much
more logical than million, billion, trillion... It is, essentially,
a positional notation in words.
Andy "Krazy" Glew. Gould CSD-Urbana. USEnet: ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!aglew
1101 E. University, Urbana, IL 61801 ARPAnet: aglew@gswd-vms