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Large numbers -- OT

Posted By: Timothy Chow
Date: Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 8:22 p.m.

In Response To: Large numbers -- OT (Casper van der Tak)

U.K. usage of "billion" has pretty much switched over to U.S. usage.

I think it's more accurate to say that Chinese uses powers of 10000. There are separate words for ten, hundred, thousand, and ten thousand (let's call that a "myriad"). Then we get ten myriad, hundred myriad, thousand myriad, and then a new word for a myriad myriad.

Conway and Guy's Book of Numbers has some entertaining material about developing naming systems for numbers that go far beyond the standard naming systems.

Messages In This Thread

• My Quintuple Whopper
  Paul Weaver -- Monday, 31 May 2010, at 2:38 p.m.
  • My Quintuple Whopper
    neilkaz -- Monday, 31 May 2010, at 2:43 p.m.
  • My Quintuple Whopper
    Rich Munitz -- Monday, 31 May 2010, at 4:17 p.m.
  • My Quintuple Whopper
    Nack Ballard -- Monday, 31 May 2010, at 5:19 p.m.
    • My Quintuple Whopper
      Rod -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 3:40 a.m.
      • My Quintuple Whopper
        Jason Lee -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 4:03 a.m.
        • My Quintuple Whopper
          Sam Pottle -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 5:39 p.m.
      • Large numbers -- OT
        Nack Ballard -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 6:35 p.m.
        • Large numbers -- OT
          Casper van der Tak -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 6:44 p.m.
          • Large numbers -- OT
            Timothy Chow -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 8:22 p.m.
            • Large numbers -- OT
              Sam Pottle -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 8:35 p.m.
        • Large numbers -- OT
          christian munk-christensen -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 8:44 p.m.
        • Large numbers -- OT
          Leonardo Jerkovic -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 9:48 p.m.
        • Large numbers -- OT
          Keene -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 10:30 p.m.
          • Large numbers -- OT
            Nack Ballard -- Wednesday, 2 June 2010, at 5:20 a.m.
        • Large numbers -- OT
          eXtreme Gammon -- Wednesday, 2 June 2010, at 2:13 a.m.
  • My Quintuple Whopper
    Keene -- Monday, 31 May 2010, at 7:30 p.m.
  • My Quintuple Whopper
    Petter Bengtsson -- Monday, 31 May 2010, at 7:37 p.m.
  • My Quintuple Whopper
    Casper van der Tak -- Monday, 31 May 2010, at 7:45 p.m.
  • My Quintuple Whopper
    Sam Pottle -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 5:49 p.m.
  • My Quintuple Whopper
    Rod -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 10:38 p.m.
    • My Quintuple Whopper
      Timothy Chow -- Tuesday, 1 June 2010, at 11:48 p.m.