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Originally Posted by Wikipedia
When South Africa adopted the metric system in 1971, "milliard" was recommended by the Metrication Board, but has often been ignored in practice.
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I don't understand why they mention the metric system. There is no connection between the adoption of metric units and the definition of billion, as far as I know.
- Anglo-Saxon billion = second group of three decimals after the thousand. In other words 1,000 is a thousand, therefore 1,
000,000,000 is a billion. Has
2 x 3 + 3 = 9 decimals.
- Continental billion = a million squared (1,000,000 x 1,000,000 = 1,000,000,000,000); has
2 x 6 = 12 decimals.