3
$\begingroup$

I've been playing this github game for a while called Swarm Simulator. I like it a lot and there are a bunch of other simulators going around either in-browser like Swarm or iOS apps, etc.

These games use terminology centered on what I think of as comma groupings of numbers, the game creator (and probably you all) calls them standard decimals.

Essentially, numbers are shortened to 300M or 50Sx... or 13QaQq (quattuorquinquagintillion or 10^165 in short scale). You can actually view the numbers in several different formats including scientific-E, Engineering, or a hybrid (combination of standard and scientific) format if you wish, but this view is my personal preference.

The problem comes when I want to discuss the differences between these numbers.

I know that I can use 3 multiples of "orders of magnitude"...

quadrillion is 6 "orders of magnitude" greater than billion

But is there a term that inherently means "three orders of magnitude"?

So that I could, instead, say:

quadrillion is 2 ______ greater than billion

I have done a little poking around... There's a similar ELU question but I don't think I would want to use the accepted answer's "thousandfold" in this situation...

We use these terms so much in computers (MB, kB, GB, TB etc...) I feel there must be a term that fits for this use of 1000^X as an order base instead of 10^X.

$\endgroup$
8
  • $\begingroup$ I would just say one million times greater for your example. I mean, that's what it is. What else could you possibly be looking for? $\endgroup$
    – Matt Samuel
    Jun 3, 2015 at 20:29
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ This might be better on the English SE. $\endgroup$
    – user208649
    Jun 3, 2015 at 20:30
  • $\begingroup$ @MattSamuel Ok, that works for that one example... I want something that can easily be scaled... "orders of magnitude" scales as much as you want it to, easily. $\endgroup$
    – Catija
    Jun 3, 2015 at 20:30
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Maybe some interesting foreign word? Like japanese せん (sen). (Plug one of my favourite anime here: Sennen Joō) $\endgroup$
    – mvw
    Jun 3, 2015 at 20:30
  • $\begingroup$ @CuddlyCuttlefish As my question shows, it's been asked there... or a similar question... I'd rather people who actually deal with math answer the question than people who deal with English, which is why I asked it here. $\endgroup$
    – Catija
    Jun 3, 2015 at 20:32

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3
$\begingroup$

I think the prefix kilo may be what you're looking for.

a quadrillion is 1k times greater than a trillion.

Or if you want to talk about 6 orders of magnitude, you can use mega, even though I don't think this is standard:

a quadrillion is 1M times greater than a billion.

$\endgroup$
0
2
$\begingroup$

Since an order of magnitude is sometimes called a decade (or decad) from the Greek name for "ten", I suggest chiliad (or chiliade), from the Greek word for "thousand".

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .