----- Original Message -----
From: Mandrake Bugs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 1999 7:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Cooker] panoramix.diff
> > According to my (german) English-Dictionary should the english billion
> > compared to the german "Milliarde" what is 1,000,000,000.
>
> Yep, some of the more facinating forms of 'loss in translation'
>
> billion = milliarde
> trillion = billiarde?
No, it's Billion :->
The idea is that in german you always switch between
{mi-,bi-,tri-,quadri-,...} "-llion" and "-lliarde".
In english you don't have the "-lliarde", so you progress much faster.
> How does the progression go in German?
>
> Never understood why salt (NaCL0
Shouldn't that be NaCl?
> is 'natrium' in the rest of the world, and
> 'sodium' in English speaking countries (while the chemical sign is 'Na' -
> but I digress.... :-)
Well, the chemical sign "C" stands for "Kohlenstoff" (carbon) in german, and
"O" stands for "Sauerstoff" (Oxygenium). So this isn't exactly intuitive,
too. (The chemical symbols are from the latin words, so they are propably
most intuitive in italian?).
Michael
