wanted: nomenclature for large numbers
mark@lenti
I was recently posed a question by a 6'th grader about how large
numbers (> decillion) are named. Much to my embarassment, I could
not remember (I believe I learned this somewhere, way back when...)
the convention for doing so, nor did I know a reference where this
information could be found.
Does anyone off the top of their head know this nomenclature, or,
better yet, a reference where this information can be found? I can
be emailed at ma...@lenti.med.umn.edu.
Thanks for your patience - I apologize if this posting is
inappropriate for this forum...
mark olson
ma...@lenti.med.umn.edu
John T Ellis
bounced.
Thanks for the bandwidth.
John
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From: motcid!blue!ellis (John T Ellis)
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To: timbuk!cs.umn.edu!lenti!mark
Subject: Re: wanted: nomenclature for large numbers
Reply-To: motcid!uunet.uu.NET!motcid!ellis (John T Ellis)
Newsgroups: sci.math
In-Reply-To: <1990Oct16.2...@cs.umn.edu>
Organization: Motorola Inc. - Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL 60004
As far as I can remember both in high school and college, the usage was
ten ten million or one hundred million etc. The largest number that has
A name associated with it that I know of, is the following:
1000..000 -> a one with a hundred zeros following. This is called a googol.
Other than that, I can't be of much help. Sorry.
Regards.
John
--
-------------------------------+------------------------------------------------
John T. Ellis 708-632-7857 | The attention span of a computer is
Motorola Cellular | only as long as its electrical cord.
motcid!el...@chg.mcd.mot.com |
Ravinder Dhiman
[TEXT DELETED ...]
>1000..000 -> a one with a hundred zeros following. This is called a googol.
>Other than that, I can't be of much help. Sorry.
>Regards.
>John
>--
>-------------------------------+------------------------------------------------
> John T. Ellis 708-632-7857 | The attention span of a computer is
> Motorola Cellular | only as long as its electrical cord.
> motcid!el...@chg.mcd.mot.com |
I don't know about formal naming conventions but didn't the googol (if memory
serves) come about as a result one of the well known astronomers
(Herschel ??) asked his nephew what 10^100 should be called (the child replied
"googol")? My source for this (again, from memory) is Carl Sagan's (series/
book) COSMOS. Of course, 10^(googol) is a googolplex (sp?).
---
Ravi Dhiman
Motorola, Inc. M/S IL27-N276
Cellular Infrastructure Div.
Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Matt Visser
> I was recently posed a question by a 6'th grader about how large
>numbers (> decillion) are named. Much to my embarassment, I could
>not remember (I believe I learned this somewhere, way back when...)
>the convention for doing so, nor did I know a reference where this
>information could be found.
>
> Does anyone off the top of their head know this nomenclature, or,
>better yet, a reference where this information can be found? I can
>be emailed at ma...@lenti.med.umn.edu.
>
> Thanks for your patience - I apologize if this posting is
>inappropriate for this forum...
>
>mark olson
>ma...@lenti.med.umn.edu
First you decide whether you speak English or American quasi-english:
In american quasi-english: n-illion = 10^(3n+3),
million = 10^6,
billion = 10^(3*2+3) = 10^9,
trillion = 10^(3*3+3) = 10^12,
decillion= 10^(3*10+3)= 10^33,
etc ...
In real english: n-illion = 10^(6n),
million = 10^6,
billion = 10^(6*2) = 10^12 = US trillion,
trillion = 10^(6*3) = 10^18 = US quintillion,
etc,
In real english: milliard = 1000 million = 10^9 = US billion.
Both real english and american quasi-english use the special forms:
googol = 10^100,
googolplexus = 10^googol.
As you can see, one of the big confusions with large numbers is the
inconsistent usage across the planet. As of about 20 years ago essentially
everyone outside the US followed the real english conventions, right now, US
conventions appear to be winning on a planet-wide basis (results of one
thouroghly unscientific personal survey).
Moral: when americans talk to english speakers they both should be very
careful about the meaning of large numbers.
Hope your student friend has fun,
Matt.
--
############################################################################
Matt Visser, Physics Department, Washington University, St. Louis 63130-4899
vis...@wuphys.wustl.edu
############################################################################
Timothy Yi-chung Chow
quattuordecillion, quindecillion, [four more which I can't remember
exactly], vigintillion. I think I got this from Webster's Eighth New
Collegiate Dictionary. Beyond vigintillion there are only a few numbers
that have names, as far as I know.
--
Tim Chow tyc...@phoenix.princeton.edu
Nowadays the only unforgivable sins are racism, sexism, homophobia, and bigotry.
Carl Edman
In article <1990Oct16.2...@cs.umn.edu> you write:
>
> I was recently posed a question by a 6'th grader about how large
>numbers (> decillion) are named. Much to my embarassment, I could
>not remember (I believe I learned this somewhere, way back when...)
>the convention for doing so, nor did I know a reference where this
>information could be found.
>
> Does anyone off the top of their head know this nomenclature, or,
>better yet, a reference where this information can be found? I can
>be emailed at ma...@lenti.med.umn.edu.
>
> Thanks for your patience - I apologize if this posting is
>inappropriate for this forum...
>
>mark olson
>ma...@lenti.med.umn.edu
As far as I can remember both in high school and college, the usage was
ten ten million or one hundred million etc. The largest number that has
A name associated with it that I know of, is the following:
1000..000 -> a one with a hundred zeros following. This is called a googol.
Other than that, I can't be of much help. Sorry.
Actually there is a larger number than this in the same nomenclature, the
googolplex == 10^googol.
Carl Edman
Theorectial Physicist,N.:A physicist whose | Send mail
existence is postulated, to make the numbers | to
balance but who is never actually observed | ced...@golem.ps.uci.edu
in the laboratory. | edm...@uciph0.ps.uci.edu
Charles Ferenbaugh
called "number". This will take a decimal number from the standard input
and write a spelled-out version to standard output. It can go as high as
one vigintillion ( = 10 ^ 63; note that it uses the American system). After
that, it will accept larger input, but cheats on the output (e.g.,
10^66 = one thousand vigintillion, 10^69 = one million vigintillion, etc.).
- Charles Ferenbaugh
Roger Noe
> ma...@lenti.med.umn.edu writes:
> > I was recently posed a question by a 6'th grader about how large
> > numbers (> decillion) are named. Much to my embarassment, I could
> > not remember (I believe I learned this somewhere, way back when...)
> > the convention for doing so, nor did I know a reference where this
> > information could be found.
>
> In american quasi-english: n-illion = 10^(3n+3),
> In real english: n-illion = 10^(6n),
After my previous article in which I simply posted a table I had squirreled
away in a file, I looked up the Latin names for the cardinals to 1000. (No,
Sister Excruciata, I never did memorize them. Whack!) Armed with this, I
have extended the list of names of large numbers beyond centillion. I have
collected these in the following table and shown the relationship between
the names for these numbers and the names for the small cardinals, which
are the "n" values suggested by Matt Visser's article. If anyone can point
out any conceivable use for the numbers near the end of the table, I'd like
to know. (How many quarks in the universe?)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| SMALL CARDINAL | LARGE CARDINAL |
| | common log |
|NAME VALUE | NAME US UK ALTERNATE NAME |
|---------------------+-----------------------------------------------------|
|unus 1 | million 6 6 |
|duo 2 | billion 9 12 |
|tres 3 | trillion 12 18 |
|quattuor 4 | quadrillion 15 24 |
|quinque 5 | quintillion 18 30 |
|sex 6 | sextillion 21 36 |
|septem 7 | septillion 24 42 |
|octo 8 | octillion 27 48 |
|novem 9 | nonillion 30 54 |
|decem 10 | decillion 33 60 |
|undecim 11 | undecillion 36 66 |
|duodecim 12 | duodecillion 39 72 |
|tredecim 13 | tredecillion 42 78 |
|quattuordecim 14 | quattuordecillion 45 84 |
|quindecim 15 | quindecillion 48 90 |
|sedecim 16 | sexdecillion 51 96 |
|septendecim 17 | septendecillion 54 102 |
|octodecim 18 | octodecillion 57 108 duodevigintillion |
|novemdecim 19 | novemdecillion 60 114 undevigintillion |
|viginti 20 | vigintillion 63 120 |
|triginta 30 | trigintillion 93 180 |
|quadraginta 40 | quadragintillion 123 240 |
|quinquaginta 50 | quinquagintillion 153 300 |
|sexaginta 60 | sexagintillion 183 360 |
|septuaginta 70 | septuagintillion 213 420 |
|octoginta 80 | octogintillion 243 480 |
|nonaginta 90 | nonagintillion 273 540 |
|centum 100 | centillion 303 600 |
|ducenti 200 | ducentillion 603 1200 |
|trecenti 300 | trecentillion 903 1800 |
|quadringenti 400 | quadringentillion 1203 2400 |
|quingenti 500 | quingentillion 1503 3000 |
|sescenti 600 | sescentillion 1803 3600 sexgentillion |
|septingenti 700 | septingentillion 2103 4200 |
|octingenti 800 | octingentillion 2403 4800 |
|nongenti 900 | nongentillion 2703 5400 |
|mille 1000 | millillion?? 3003 6000 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Roger Noe Motorola Microcomputer Division, Urbana Design Center
Phone: 217 384-8536 1101 East University Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801 USA
Internet: rn...@urbana.mcd.mot.com UUCPnet: uiucuxc!udc!rnoe
Latitude/Longitude: 40:06:55 N./88:11:40 W.
Kay Litchfield
use the same naming convention for large numbers as the British, but
then I looked it up a few more places. It seems they do, but I am not
sure where I learned that from.
The best reference from "Petit Larousse" (1967 printing) is for
billion: "Un million de millions (10^12)--Autref. [previously],
et encore aux Etats-Unis [and still in the U.S.], syn. de MILLIARD."
All of my other French references, from just a few years earlier, match
the American naming convention.
My English dictionaries (that mention the French) equate the American
and French systems. (Webster's New Collegiate, 1959--OK, and Webster's
New Universal Unabridged, 1983--disappointing!!) Webster's Ninth New
Collegiate, 1988, explains that the French did change--hurray!
Question: When (month and year) did the French change conventions?
(This question may sound foreign, but the same process gives the French
language extra precision, especially compared to American English.)
(And sci.math is not the place for flames like "French is un-American.")
My only French reference book that gives names for numbers bigger than
quintillion is my French grammar book, "Le Bon Usage." It says:
"Pour les tres grands nombres [for very large numbers], on a les noms
suivants [there are the following names] ...: million, milliard (ou :
billion), trillion, quatrillion (ou : quadrillion), quintillion,
sextillion, septillion, octillion, nonillion."
Question: Do the names (in French) really stop there?
In looking up the large number names in a French<->English and a
German<->English dictionary, at least one of these words translated
incorrectly in each. The term "innumeracy" must apply, and it looks
like this happens much more often than we would like.
-Kay Litchfield my favorite out-of-context quote
kli...@cs.utah.edu "... we delight in physics ..."
-Macbeth