How big is your billion?

“As an Antipodean how big is a billion?” You just don’t hear that question addressed to the average Australian on a regular basis. And, honestly, I had to think about the answer – which is a lot less straightforward that it ought to be.

This video from the truly excellent Numberphile site explains the difference between the short and long scale systems in a very clear fashion. If, by the way, you weren’t sure we apparently use the short scale so our billion is one thousand million. At least that’s what we mostly do.