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Trillion
 

Information About

Trillion





USAGE



Short scale

In the Short Scale , used in Brazil , Greece , Puerto Rico , Russia , Turkey , and most English-speaking countries, a trillion is 1012 or 1,000,000,000,000 (a one followed by twelve zeros). It is thereby one thousand Billion s (short-scale usage), or one million Million s, or (1 million)2, or one thousandth of a Quadrillion (short-scale Usage) . The SI Prefix for this number is Tera .

While Australia , Ireland , New Zealand , and the United Kingdom traditionally employed the Long-scale usage, they switched, some years ago, to the Short-scale usage of 1012.


Long scale

In the Long Scale , used in other countries and languages, a trillion (or its translated equivalent) is 1018 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (a one followed by eighteen zeros), a million Billions (long-scale Usage) . It is one million million millions, or (1 million)3, or one millionth of a Quadrillion (long-scale Usage) . The SI Prefix for this number is Exa .


HISTORY

The history of ''trillion'' is described in the " Long And Short Scales " article.


AMBIGUITY

For reasons of the ambiguity described above, some avoid using the term ''trillion'' and instead use the corresponding millions ("million million" and "million million million") or powers of ten (1012 and 1018) or SI Prefix es (tera- and exa-), as appropriate.

However, some people use the word ''trillion'' to mean an unspecified large number. It then occupies the same category as '' Umpteen '' and '' Zillion ''.


SI PREFIXES



SEE ALSO