>>>>The North Amercian definition of a billion is one thousand million.
>>>>
>>>>1,000,000 <--- million
>>>>1,000,000,000 <---- billion
>>>>1,000,000,000,000 <---- trillion
>>>>
>>>>Wait... maybe it was "trillion" that was mentioned. Either way, could appreciate any comments on this, especially from the UK.
>>>>
>>
>>>Might this have been based on the difference between dollars and pounds? For example 1 pound is equal to (at this point in time) $2.20 canadian. If you had 1,000,000 canadian dollars you would be a millionare. A person in the U.K. however would have 454,546 pounds.
>>>
>>>Not sure if this was the basis but theres economics 101 :-)
>>
>>Nope. I know the exchange rate. :-) But, the impression I got was that either billion or trillion was defined differently in the UK.
>>
>>IE. A trillion in the UK was.. 3 billion or something like that, or that "trillion" is not even a term in UK english.
>The UK definition of a Billion is different than the US. What is known as a Billion (1,000 Million) is known as a Millard in the UK. The UK Billion is 1,000 Millard or 1,000,000 Million. However with the Americanization of the world do to the satelite distribution of American TV throughout the world, you will hear numbers quoted in US Billions on UK telivision news. SO while there is technically a difference it seems the common usage in the UK is shifting to the US Billion.

Steven,

Thanks. I thought I was losing my mind when I heard that on TV.