When did a Trillion shrink?

You’re remembering wrong. To move up the -illions scale, you’ve always multiplied by 1,000. That’s what moves the comma over 3 places.

Just doesn’t look like enough zero’s. Shouldn’t each -illion have twice the zero’s?

In the US we increase by one thousand. In the UK it increased by a million, so instead of a US billion, you had a thousand million in the UK (also known as a milliard). When the US went to trillion (10^12), the UK called it a billion.

But it was never the square (^2) of the previous level, which is what doubling the zeroes would lead to once you get above 10^9.

There are two ways of naming large numbers which have been named long-scale and short scale (by some French chap). On short scale each new term moves up by 1,000 and on long scale each new term moves up by a million. For a long time the UK used long-scale so our billion was a million million and a trillion was a million billion etc. The UK switched to short-scale back in 1974 so a billion became a thousand million, and a trillion became a thousand million probably to bring us into line with the US.

Ugh! just as I was feeling a little more comfortable with big numbers! It’s been a while since I though about billions and trillions til watching the news. Then I find I confuse myself with the number of billions in a trillion. Now I find there were two kinds of trillion! lol. Still. it’s a bunch of money they are talking about.

The gradations after million are
billion
trillion
quadrillion
quintillion
sextillian
septillian
etc. ... each time the comma moves, as @thorninmud has indicated.

Squishy squillions & our currency is lurve…baby.

If that’s how you remember a billion then your car has a boot instead of a trunk, and you stand in queues instead of lines.

and a bonnet instead of a hood

Wait a minute…. so you guys are saying in the UK they count differently than in the US? I had no clue about this at all…

Apparently it used to be if you were a trillionaire in GB you were 1000 times more wealthy than in the US. Shhhh. don’t tell Bill Gates!

@uberbatman we used to count differently. However a lot of French, Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries still use the long scale. Most of the countries in South America (with the exception of Brazil) use the long scale.

I never knew that either! Learn something new every day…

Millions and billions and trillions of cats!

@Lightlyseared how very interesting, cool thanks for the extra info…

You may also be remembering when the UK pound was worth a bit more too. I remember, back in the day, it was three or four USD to the Pound, so, that made a bit of difference when calculating the wealth as well.

@cazzie that was predecimilisation wasn’t it? It was much easier with the old system.
Two farthings = One Ha’penny. Two ha’pennies = One Penny. Three pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and one Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea