lew (09/17/82)
A billion billion billion is e+27. If a dollar bill is e-4 meters thick, e+27 of them would extend e+23 meters. A light-year is 3e+8 meters/sec times 3e+7 secs/year or e+16 meters. A stack of a billion billion billion dollars would extend e+7 light-years; more than a round trip to the Andromeda Nebula. Lew Mammel, Jr. - BTL Indian Hill
bcw (09/21/82)
From: Bruce C. Wright @ Duke University Re: A billion billion billion dollars Well, in English this phrase is ambiguous. It isn't at all clear what it means; if the "billion" is British usage than each of the "billions" have a value 1000 times the American value, and if it is intended to mean something like 3 x 1 billion or 1000 x 1000 x 1 billion it might be reasonable in some dialect (not in any standard English I know). I don't know what he was trying to convey by the phrase but the precise meaning is obviously not important - he's trying to express an impossibly large number. Whether this is a literate way of doing so is another question. Bruce C. Wright @ Duke University