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Though it's almost unheard of now, a british billion = 1000 * a british million. In that context it does hold, being 2 british billionths of a metre thick.

That said, here we all bascially use the American 'billion' because it makes a more logical approach and allows for dealing with larger numbers more easily.



I thought it used to be: a british billion is a million million i.e. 1,000,000,000,000.

Thus a british billion is 1000 * an american billion.

Nowadays we use the american billion of 1,000,000,000.

Pretty sure we all agree that a million is a thousand thousand.


Wow I screwed up big time. I meant to say it was a million million and I have no idea why I said otehrwise. I'm going to blame tiredness. Thanks for the correction.




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