@es @briankrebs

British maths is (are?) different from US math in regard to such numbers, as are Spanish numbers. In Spanish, we say the equivalent of "thousand million" where it would be "billion" in the US.

In Spanish, "un billón" would be what we would call "a trillion". The difference is in how we distinguish the "levels" of -illions. This is the difference between the "long scale" and the "short scale" for numbers greater than 1,000,000. In the US, we use the "short scale".

In the US, I think most of us picture it like this: million, then billion, then trillion, etc., all follow each other in a sequence, with each having three more zeros then the previous one.

In many other countries, million is followed by thousand million, and THEN billion, then thousand billion, THEN trillion, etc. In other words, "un billón" is "a million millions", if that makes sense.

It's super interesting (to me) to note this kind of funky cultural micro-difference that is so easily overlooked until one day it hits you in the face.

Also, for the levels between the -illions in communities that use the "long scale", they often name the thousand-million type numbers using the same root, but different endings, with -illiard instead of -illion. So, million, then milliard, billion, then billiard, trillion, then trilliard, etc., if you didn't want to say "thousand million" and such.

And no... I just looked it up, and I'm sorry to say: this is NOT where the name for the game "billiards" comes from! :ablobcatmaracasevil:​

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales#Current_usage
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=billiards

#SpanishTeacherFacts #DeNada #LongScale #ShortScale #MathsNotGross