A billion here, a billion there; soon you’re talking a real portfolio!

by TwoPi

What is a billion?

In contemporary USA, it is 10⁹
In contemporary France, it is 10¹²
In the UK prior to the early 1970s, it is 10¹²
In the UK after the early 1970s, it is 10⁹
In most European countries, it is 10¹²
In 19th C France, it is 10⁹
In 14th – 18th C France, it is 10¹²
It is a modernized spelling of “bymillion”, a word introduced in 1475 by Jehan Adam for a million². (He also coined the term “trimillion” for a million³, and similar vocabulary for higher powers, vestiges of which remain in our number systems.)

Apparently, a billion is also a wickedly large number of shares of stock to be trading at one time. For if you accidentally hit the “b” key instead of the “m” key at your computer, and thus execute a trade in billions of shares instead of millions of shares, you might cause the Dow Jones Industrial Average to drop 9 percent in a matter of moments on a Thursday afternoon. Or so I’ve heard.

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This entry was posted on May 6, 2010 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Math in the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “A billion here, a billion there; soon you’re talking a real portfolio!”

jd2718 Says:
May 8, 2010 at 8:34 am | Reply
It is a modernized spelling of “bymillion”, a word introduced in 1475 by Jehan Adam for a million2

So I’m reading this and thinking to myself, “self, why does a bymillion mean the same thing as a million? And where is that footnote explaining the ambiguity”

Then I realized it wasn’t a footnote.

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