Million Times Million
10 months ago
- #education
- #number-scales
- #mathematics
- The author grew up using the long scale system for naming large numbers, where a million times a million is a billion.
- The long scale system uses prefixes (bi-, tri-, etc.) to indicate how many times a million is multiplied by itself, making it intuitive.
- Upon entering university and the tech world, the author discovered the short scale system, where a million times a million is a trillion, causing initial confusion.
- The short scale counts additional thousands multiplied onto one thousand, with prefixes representing the number of these multiplications.
- The short scale is now the dominant convention in technology, computing, finance, and most English-speaking contexts.
- Despite adapting to the short scale, the author retains nostalgia for the long scale's elegance and simplicity.