Name The

Big Numbers

Part II

Introduction

·   Congratulations! You have discovered the difference between a billion in the USA and a billion in Europe.

Task

Your second task is to:

·   Research 3 important big numbers: the current global population, US Federal deficit, and the number of web sites you can search on Google.

Process

Continue to work in your previous group.

Round off the big numbers to two significant digits.

·                Find the present projected world population. ¹

·                  Find the present projected US Federal deficit. $

·   Find the number of web pages searched by Google. (Hint: It is given after the copyright at the bottom of the search page.)

·   Extra (optional): Find another big number (between 10⁹ and 10¹⁸.)

·   Make an attractive table of the above numbers in both the American System and Chuquet (European) Systems. This will be Appendix 3 of your group report.

Challenge (optional):

·   How did it happen that the US has different names for big numbers than Great Britain, Germany and France?

·   How does “6n” relate to the names in the Chuquet System?

·   What is the formula for names in the American System?

·   What problems might this cause for businesses?

Resources

Semiconductor sales

http://www.thestandard.com/movabletype/datadigest/archives/000557.php

40 trillion things per second

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/top/story/0,4136,77067,00.html

Evaluation

·   50 points: World Population, Federal Deficit and Google Websites.

·   10 Additional points for “Extra” and “Challenge” up to a total of 100 points.

Conclusion

·   We are not all playing by the same rules or using the same standards. In the business world and in the scientific community we have to remember that the way in which we communicate knowledge can vary from region to region.

·   This lesson is on the importance of definitions in communication. Even in mathematics, which is often referred to as the universal language, there are regional differences.