Names of large numbers
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There are two main ways of using words to write large numbers. The American way or "short form" for naming large numbers is different from the European way or "long form" of naming large numbers. This is mainly because of American finance.
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Short form numbering is based on thousands and Long form is based on millions. Because of this, in Short form a billion is one thousand millions (109) while in Long form it is one million millions (1012).[source?]
The change in the United Kingdom (UK) to short-form numbering happened in 1974. Today, Short form is most commonly used in most English speaking countries.[source?]
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History
Prehistory
Numbers were first used by prehistoric tribes. Those prehistoric tribes invented numbers as a way to measure and calculate items, something which required counting. More advanced prehistoric tribes later invented mathematics and they started adding, subtracting, and multiplying as a way to measure and calculate more advanced and complex items and certain fields.[source?]
Bronze Age
Large numbers were first used by ancient civilizations such as Sumer, Ancient Egypt, Akkad, Babylonia, the Hittite Empire, Rome, and Greece, for measuring and calculating items. As civilizations grew more complex, numbers did as well.[source?]
Renaissance
The words billion and trillion, and millions were first written to describe extremely large numbers in 1475 by Jehan Adam. In 1484, Nicolas Chuquet used the words million, billion, trillion, and even further to write and describe much larger numbers.[1][better source needed] Adam and Chuquet both used long scale. For example, Adam's billion (Chuquet's (bi)llion) was used to write 1012.[2][better source needed] While these were the first writings that used these words, Adam and Chuquet were probably not the creators of the words. The word million comes from the Old Italian millione.[1][3] These words were also probably commonly used before the books were written.[1]
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Names for large numbers
The number TREE 3 is so incomprehensibly big it dwarfs every other number compared to it, far surpassing even exponential growth or the number of atoms in the known universe. It originates from a mathematical game about arranging trees (graph structures) under specific rules, where the challenge is to avoid repeating any previously created tree patterns.[4]
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References
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