I just checked Rowlett's page. Justin quoted him correctly. As Rowlett did, he cited billion for 10^9 as being of French origin (... French mathematicians of the 1600's ...) . He did not say it was the current French usage.
Bill Potts, CMS Roseville, CA http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Joseph B. Reid Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2001 08:36 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:15778] Re: Large numbers and SI vs. currencies J. Jih in USMA 15774 misquotes Rowlett who makes it clear that the European billion is 10^12. >See this page at http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/large.html and both >European and "American" >definitions of a billion are of French origin. In practice, anything over >trillion is rarely used. Joseph B.Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 TEL. 416-486-6071
