Thread: one billion

  1. #16
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    The scandinavian countries have something called "Miljard" that is thousand millions.

  2. #17
    Ethereal Raccoon Procyon's Avatar
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    Originally posted by ygfperson
    simply tell all the people in nasa to go metric. unlike other places, nasa is a very scientific place, so why not stick to the scientific standard (and avoid another ... problem.)
    Nearly all scientific facilities, including NASA, use metric now. The problem, I think, was that the thruster component of the spacecraft had been contracted to a private company - Lockheed Martin or something - and its electronics was set up for English units, not metric. The NASA engineers did the calculations and entered in the metric units into the computer, but the thruster interpreted the numbers as in English units and slammed into the planet instead of gliding through the atmosphere. (This may not be totally accurate, but I think this is more or less the case.)

    And while the British system is more logical, "thousand million" is so awkward I'm quite glad the US convention stuck.

  3. #18
    Much older and wiser Fountain's Avatar
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    thousand this, thousand that!


    all that is true here is that they did slam into the planet.hehe.

    i cant help but try to find a solution....ok, here goes.............

    Ok, we gave the yanks the language, so i guess whatever we say is correct?

    They changed some spellings which were DIFFICULT..ie color instead of colour.

    So, we are correct..i wannnnnna be an english billionaire anytime.
    Such is life.

  4. #19
    Just because ygfperson's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Fountain
    thousand this, thousand that!


    all that is true here is that they did slam into the planet.hehe.

    i cant help but try to find a solution....ok, here goes.............

    Ok, we gave the yanks the language, so i guess whatever we say is correct?

    They changed some spellings which were DIFFICULT..ie color instead of colour.

    So, we are correct..i wannnnnna be an english billionaire anytime.
    i wouldn't object to that much money. however, i think i would be satisfied with an american billion.

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