Re: what comes after trillion? Message #6 Posted by Sampy on 21 July 2002, 6:15 p.m., in response to message #1 by Jack Stafford
Well trillion is not a unit but a multiplier, the unit would be $ or Watts or seconds. I've not heard anything above a trillion but the greek bi/tri/quad/pent... seems to work.
Billion in England used to mean 1,000,000 x 1,000,000 (i.e. [1 million]^2 ) or 10^12. The normally accepted Billion in England is now what the US uses, this used to be called an 'American or US billion'.
For scientific use the SI series of multipliers is:
10^ Name
...
-18 Atto
-15 Femto
-12 Pico
-9 Nano
-6 Micro
-3 Milli
+3 Kilo
+6 Mega
+9 Giga
+12 Tera
+15 Petra
...
So a small distance would be 5pm or 5 pico meters. But in the world of finance poeple don't say 2 MegaDollars!
Sam.
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