-yllion: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:21, 27 August 2003

Revision as of 02:23, 11 September 2003

Line 1:

[[Donald Knuth]]

adapted the
[[list of numbers|familiar naming schemeschemes]]
to handle much larger numbers, dodging ambiguity by changing the -illion to -yllion.

Knuth's digit grouping is exponential instead of linear; each division doubles the number of digits handled, whereas the familiar system only adds 3 or 6 more.

Line 7 ⟶ 9:

*100 to 9999 are divided before the 2nd-last digit and named "''blah'' hundred ''blah''". (eg 1234 is "twelve hundred thirty-four"; 7623 is "seventy-six hundred twenty-three")

*10⁴ to 10⁸-1 are divided before the 4th-last digit and named "''blah'' myriad ''blah''". Knuth also introduces at this level a grouping symbol (comma) for the numeral. So, 382,1902 is "382 myriad 19 hundred 2".

*10⁸ to 10¹⁶-1 are divided before the 8th-last digit and and named "''blah'' myllion ''blah''", and a semicolon separates the digits. So 1,0002;0003,0004 is "1 myriad 2 myllion 3 myriad 4"

*10¹⁶ to 10³²-1 are divided before the 16th-last digit and and named "''blah'' byllion ''blah''", and a colon separates the digits. So 12:0003,0004;0506,7089 is "12 byllion 3 myriad 4 myllion 506 myriad 70 hundred 89"

*etc (although what separator follows is not obvious)

*etc

<!--See also [[Knuths up-arrow notation]]. only nominally related-->

==External==