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Yes, this article is actually loading (order of magnitude) 10^12 rows. I was very surprised to learn about this the first time. In USA English: 10^3 -> thousa

by aftbit 3y ago

Yes, this article is actually loading (order of magnitude) 10^12 rows. I was very surprised to learn about this the first time. In USA English: 10^3 -> thousand 10^6 -> million 10^9 -> billion 10^12 -> trillion 10^15 -> quadrillion 10^18 -> quintillion But there's another scale too! See this Wiki article for more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers

samatman 3y ago
Unless you're reading historical documents, these words have only one meaning in the English language. It is in no sense American English specific. One advantage of the short scale is that its cadence is the same as that of SI units: million is mega, billion is giga, trillion is tera, and so on. The long scale of course has the -ard names, so this isn't exactly a problem, any more than French saying "four twenties and nineteen" for ninety-nine is a problem. The difference is one of the major reasons the SI scale names exist in the first place, in fact. It also matches the decimal separators used by everyone but Indians, which strikes me as more logical.
- aftbit 3y ago
  Sorry, I wasn't intending to imply that they were American English specific, just that I only have experience with English as spoken in the USA. What's the advantage of the long scale? Just historical?
  - samatman 3y ago
    I don't think the long scale actually has advantages compared to the short. One could argue euphony: the alternative repetition of million, milliard, billion, billiard, and so on, is pleasing in a way. But really, each is just a quirk of languages. I don't expect 7 to sound like "seven" in other languages, why expect billion to sound like "billion" rather than "milliard" or "trillion"? When conveying information across languages, we use numerals, sometimes with the SI scales, which are universal. Just another confusing faux amis to figure out when learning another language, really.

by aftbit 3y ago

samatman 3y ago

Unless you're reading historical documents, these words have only one meaning in the English language. It is in no sense American English specific. One advantage of the short scale is that its cadence is the same as that of SI units: million is mega, billion is giga, trillion is tera, and so on. The long scale of course has the -ard names, so this isn't exactly a problem, any more than French saying "four twenties and nineteen" for ninety-nine is a problem. The difference is one of the major reasons the SI scale names exist in the first place, in fact. It also matches the decimal separators used by everyone but Indians, which strikes me as more logical.

aftbit 3y ago
Sorry, I wasn't intending to imply that they were American English specific, just that I only have experience with English as spoken in the USA. What's the advantage of the long scale? Just historical?
- samatman 3y ago
  I don't think the long scale actually has advantages compared to the short. One could argue euphony: the alternative repetition of million, milliard, billion, billiard, and so on, is pleasing in a way. But really, each is just a quirk of languages. I don't expect 7 to sound like "seven" in other languages, why expect billion to sound like "billion" rather than "milliard" or "trillion"? When conveying information across languages, we use numerals, sometimes with the SI scales, which are universal. Just another confusing faux amis to figure out when learning another language, really.