On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 19:22:51 -0000, "N Cook"
wrote:

"Bob Shuman" wrote in message
...
What does it list for "trillion" ?


"N Cook" wrote in message
...
I've ust looked in a UK dictionary published in 1960
billion = million million except USA and France where billion = 1000
million



trillion = million million million except France where it means million
million , no mention of USA.


There are two systems of naming large numbers ( sometimes called long
scale and short scale ) both of which originated in France and are
still in use today. They are described at this site:

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/large.html

As mentioned on this page the UK officially switched from billion =
million million to billion = thousand million in the mid 1970s.

Mike Capel

capel AT mts DOT net