Really Big and Really Small Numbers

There is some international confusion about how to name big numbers. The number 1,000,000 is one million all over the world. But Americans read 1,000,000,000 (= 109, or a one with nine zeros) as one billion, while in Britain, they say "one thousand million" for 109. For the British, "one billion" means 1012 -- what most other people call "one trillion". (These days the British are starting to switch over to the American system, at least in the scientific world.)

Also, in India, after 1,000, they start putting commas after every two zeros. In India, 1,00,000 is one lakh (our one hundred thousand) and 1,00,00,000 is one crore (our ten million).

Below are the standard American and scientific names given to really huge numbers and really tiny numbers. You may want to review your properties of exponents and exponent tables. The prefixes are used in the metric system (for example, 1000 grams is a kilogram, and 1,000,000,000 watts is a gigawatt.)

BIG NUMBERS
Number
Name
Metric Prefix
101 = 10
Ten
deka-
102 = 100
Hundred
hecto-
103 = 1000
Thousand
kilo-
104 = 10,000
Ten Thousand
myria-
106 = 1,000,000
One Million
Mega-
109 = 1,000,000,000
One Billion
Giga-
1012
One Trillion
Tera-
1015
One Quadrillion
Peta-
1018
One Quintillion
Exa-
1021
One Sextillion
Zetta-
1024
One Septillion
Yotta-
1027
One Octillion
  
1030
One Nonillion
  
1033
One Decillion
  
1036
One Undecillion
  
1039
One Duodecillion
  
1042
One Tredecillion
  
1045
One Quattuordecillion
  
1048
One Quindecillion
  
1051
One Sexdecillion
  
1054
One Septendecillion
  
1057
One Octodecillion
  
1060
One Novemdecillion
  
1063
One Vigintillion
  
10100

One Googol

(named by a nine-year old kid named Milton Sirotta in 1938... but it's in the dictionary! Note that it's spelled differently than that website.)

 
10303
One Centillion
  

(that's a 1 with 10100 zeros!)

One Googolplex

("the largest number with a name")

 

 

SMALL NUMBERS
Number
Name
Metric Prefix
10-1 = 0.1
One Tenth
deci-
10-2 = 0.01
One Hundredth
centi-
10-3 = 0.001
One Thousandth
milli-
10-6 = 0.000001
One Millionth
micro-
10-9 = 0.000000001
One Billionth
nano-
10-12
One Trillionth
pico-
10-15
One Quadrillionth
femto-
10-18
One Quintillionth
atto-
10-21
One Sextillionth
zepto-
10-24
One Septillionth
yocto-