There are two standard counting methods, The America-French method and the British-European method. Both methods have nomenclature for Thousands, Millions, Billions, Trillion, Quadrillion, Quintillion, Sextillion, Septillion, Octillion, Nonillion and Decillion.
The definition of the numbers greater than Million differs.
The American French method counts in Thousands. Therefore a Billion is a Thousand Millions, a Trillion is a Thousand Billions, a Quadrillion is a Thousand Trillions.
The British Euro method counts in Millions. Therefore a Billion is a Million Millions, a Trillion is a Million Billions, a Quadrillion is a Million Trillions.
The America French method adds three zeroes to the prior definition.
The British Euro method adds six zeroes to the prior definition.
There is an alternative method, that allows larger numbers to be expressed and is a combination of the above two methods with a more logical propagation. It takes the method the British Euro starts with and extrapolates. This method is called the Very Big Logical Counting (VBLC) method.
Using VBLC,
One million = one thousand thousands (same as other two methods)
One billion = one million millions (same as British Euro method)
One trillion = one billion billions
One quadrillion = one trillion trillions
One quintillion = one quadrillion quadrillions
The following table shows the number of ZEROES used to define each number.
|
|
American
French |
British
Euro |
VBLC |
|
Million |
6 |
6 |
6 |
|
Billion |
9 |
12 |
12 |
|
Trillion |
12 |
18 |
24 |
|
Quadrillion |
15 |
24 |
48 |
|
Quintillion |
18 |
30 |
96 |
|
Sextillion |
21 |
36 |
192 |
|
Septillion |
24 |
42 |
384 |
|
Octillion |
27 |
48 |
768 |
|
Nonillion |
30 |
54 |
1536 |
|
Decillion |
33 |
60 |
3072 |