“Do you know what a nonillion is?” queried my mathematician spouse as he plopped into the chair in front of our household computer, “Is it Latin or something?” “Something to do with nine I’m sure,” I offered from the sofa. “That’s OK, I can google it.” What’s the urgency I wonder? 1 vs. 100 is the issue. The mob won.
So what is a nonillion and does it have anything to do with nine? The short answers are: it depends and yes. Nonillion is a novelty number - a term I just coined for numbers that have names, but no uses. Like a googol. The early British usage of nonillion was for 1054 - nine million millions. Americans used nonillion for 1030 or 103+3x9. In other words, the result of multiplying a thousand (103) by a thousand nine times.
The system of counting by thousands is sometimes called the “short scale” (from the French term echelle courte). The long scale (echelle longue) counts by millions. Most English speaking countries (both the US and UK included) use the short scale, while most of the rest of the world uses a version of the long scale.
It’s hard to get a sense of scale with these enormous numbers, but a nonillion (long scale) is (very) roughly the order of magnitude of the mass of the universe in kilograms. There are roughly 5 nonillion bacteria (short scale) on earth.
Literary trivia: e.e. cummings used nonillion in the Enormous Room and in at least one poem.
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3 weeks ago in Genomics, Medicine, and Pseudoscience
The word billion still cause confusion among non-scientific Brits who often insist it is a million X million, whereas in science and finance it's a 1000 million, of course. It must really mess with their heads to imagine how big is the national debt when it's measured in billions if they're thing 10E12!
ReplyDeletedb
Why was Michelle so sure that nonillion was related to nine? She remembered her latin. Nine is nonus.
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to get a sense of scale with these enormous numbers, but a nonillion (long scale) is (very) roughly the order of magnitude of the mass of the universe in kilograms. - See more at: http://cultureofchemistry.fieldofscience.com/2008/01/weird-words-of-science-nonillion.html#sthash.qnnfzW4f.dpuf
ReplyDeleteWhat about the small scale nonillion? There's our home and a diamond version of it to compare:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/10/12/diamond-planet-worth-26-9-nonillion/