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Yeah, that's my interpretation of a billion too. I vaguely recall that India or Britain interprets a billion differently though. Maybe that's what they're think

Yeah, that's my interpretation of a billion too. I vaguely recall that India or Britain interprets a billion differently though. Maybe that's what they're thinking?

atleta 5y ago
I think it's the same in UK English as well. But in some (most?) European languages billion actually means 1 000 000 million (so a thousand times more). And we use "milliard" for 1000 million.
- xeromal 5y ago
  It looks like you're right. Just looked it up. A billion is 1million^2 in its etymology so English speakers are the odd one out.
  - res0nat0r 5y ago
    He hasn't reached the goal yet, and is currently doing 100 million in ~34 seconds. > Looking forward to discussions and/or collaborations with curious souls in my quest to generate a billion record SQLite DB quickly. If this sounds interesting to you, reach out to me on Twitter or submit a PR.
- diehunde 5y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale for anyone that's interested in the differences
mongol 5y ago
In Swedish, and I think in German and other languages too, 1 billion is 1e12. 1e9 is called milliard / miljard in Swedish.
- scns 5y ago
  Yes, in Germany too.
  - raarts 5y ago
    And in the Netherlands.
    - mobilio 5y ago
      Also in Bulgaria
motogpjimbo 5y ago
Just about everyone in the UK defines a billion to be 10^9. I've heard about the 10^12 definition but never encountered anyone who uses it - I think it must have been an older usage that fell out of favour.
- jtvjan 5y ago
  In 1974, the UK government abandoned the long scale (million, milliard, billion, billiard) in favor of the short scale (million, billion, trillion, quadrillion) used in the US. The long scale is still used in languages like Dutch, German, and French.
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    And in 2001, The 51st State was released... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_51st_State https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_51st_State

Yeah, that's my interpretation of a billion too. I vaguely recall that India or Britain interprets a billion differently though. Maybe that's what they're thinking?

atleta 5y ago

I think it's the same in UK English as well. But in some (most?) European languages billion actually means 1 000 000 million (so a thousand times more). And we use "milliard" for 1000 million.

xeromal 5y ago
It looks like you're right. Just looked it up. A billion is 1million^2 in its etymology so English speakers are the odd one out.
- res0nat0r 5y ago
  He hasn't reached the goal yet, and is currently doing 100 million in ~34 seconds. > Looking forward to discussions and/or collaborations with curious souls in my quest to generate a billion record SQLite DB quickly. If this sounds interesting to you, reach out to me on Twitter or submit a PR.
diehunde 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scale for anyone that's interested in the differences

mongol 5y ago

In Swedish, and I think in German and other languages too, 1 billion is 1e12. 1e9 is called milliard / miljard in Swedish.

scns 5y ago
Yes, in Germany too.
- raarts 5y ago
  And in the Netherlands.
  - mobilio 5y ago
    Also in Bulgaria

motogpjimbo 5y ago

Just about everyone in the UK defines a billion to be 10^9. I've heard about the 10^12 definition but never encountered anyone who uses it - I think it must have been an older usage that fell out of favour.

jtvjan 5y ago
In 1974, the UK government abandoned the long scale (million, milliard, billion, billiard) in favor of the short scale (million, billion, trillion, quadrillion) used in the US. The long scale is still used in languages like Dutch, German, and French.
- CRConrad 5y ago
  And in 2001, The 51st State was released... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_51st_State https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_51st_State