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Long scale is the English translation of the French term échelle longue, which designates a system of numeric names in which the word billion means a million millions.Short scale is the English translation of the French term échelle courte, which designates a system of numeric names in which the word billion means only a thousand millions.
Both systems have been used in France at various times in history.
For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Great Britain uniformly used the long scale, while the United States of America used the short scale, so the two systems were often (and accurately) referred to as "British" and "American" usage, respectively. However, by the end of the 20th century most English-speaking countries had almost universally adopted the short scale, so the phrases "British usage" and "American usage" are now confusing.
"Long scale" and "short scale" are not familiar terms in English, but once explained they are easily understood and unambiguous. Therefore some Wikipedia articles that discuss numeric nomenclature, such as Billion and Names of large numbers, use the phrases "long scale" and "short scale" to refer to the two systems.
1 Comparison
| Value |
Short Scale |
Long Scale |
| 103 |
thousand |
thousand |
| 106 |
million |
million |
| 109 |
billion |
thousand million (or milliard) |
| 1012 |
trillion |
billion |
| 1015 |
quadrillion |
thousand billion (or billiard) |
| 1018 |
quintillion |
trillion |
For a more extensive table, see names of large numbers.
2 History
- 1475: Jehan Adam records the words "bymillion" and "trimillion" (for 1012 and 1018)
- 1484: French mathematician Nicolas Chuquet, in his article "Triparty en la science de nombres"[1], uses the words byllion, tryllion, quadrillion, quyllion, sixlion, septyllion, ottyllion, and nonyllion to refer to 1012, 1018, etc.; Chuquet's work has little direct influence because it is not published until the 1870s, but most of it is copied (without attribution) by Estienne de la Roche for a portion of his 1520 book, Larismetique
- ca. 1550: Pelletier retains Chuquet's long scale but suggests the name milliard in place of "thousand million". This word is widely adopted in England, Germany, and the rest of Europe.
- Early 17th century: In France and Italy, a minority of scientists change the sense of "billion" to 109
- Middle 18th Century: The reformed meaning of the term "billion" is brought to the New-England colonies
- Early 19th century: France partially converts to the short scale, and is followed by the USA, which begins teaching it in schools.
- 1926: H. W. Fowler 's Modern English Usage notes "It should be remembered that this word [" billion"] does not mean in American use (which follows the French) what it means in British. For to us it means the second power of a million, i.e. a million millions (1,000,000,000,000); for Americans it means a thousand multiplied by itself twice, or a thousand millions (1,000,000,000), what we call a milliard. Since billion in our sense is useless except to astronomers, it is a pity that we do not conform."
- 1948: France's International Conférence des Poids et des Mesures proposes to return to the long scale.
- 1961: The Journal Officiel (the French official gazette) confirms the system of long scale (Décret 61-501, page 14, note 3A).
- 19741974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). Events January-February January 5 Dungeons & Dragons officially released. February 4 Patricia Hearst, the 19 year old granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped: British prime minister Harold Wilson abandons the long scale meaning of billion (1012), explaining before the House of Commons that "billion" from now on in British government statistics has the short scale meaning of 109, in common with the U.S.
- 19941994 is a common year starting on Saturday, and was designated the International year of the Family''. Events January events January 1 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect January 6 Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an: The Italian government officially confirms the long scale use of the term "billion" (Direttiva CE 1994 n. 55, page 12).
- End of 20th century19th century 20th century 21st century more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901- 2000 in the sense of the Gre: As a result of US influence, the short scale usage comes to be used officially by all English-speaking countries.
