Breakdown of Large Numbers
Table of Contents
Have you ever thought to yourself “how many zeros in a million, billion, trillion and are there any numbers larger than a trillion”? There is even a number called a Septillion.
We always see these huge numbers been thrown about, but the number of zeros in each term can get complicated as they keep getting larger.
This article will break down the number of zeros in a million and large numbers that you’ve never heard of!
How many Zeros in a Million?
There are 6 zeros in a million (1,000,000). Each large number always has a zero added onto the end of the term.
1,000 has 3 zeros. The next number has 4 zeros, which is 10,000 and the next large number has 5 zeros, which is 100,000. You can see there is a pattern of multiplying each term by a factor of 10.
Once we multiply 100,000 by 10, we get one million, which contains 6 zeros.
Have you noticed that there is a comma between every 3 zeros. This is an easy way of counting the groups of 3 zeros in a term to find out how many zeros are in a billion, trillion or higher. The difference between 1,000,000 and 1000000 is noticeable and it is difficult to read how many zeros are in a million without the commas.
There are 2 sets of 3 zeros in a million (1,000,000). This is also shown as 1 x 106 in mathematics equations (makes it easier when writing as well).
How many Zeros in a Billion?
A billion is a lot larger than a million. There are 9 zeros in a billion when we use the short scale, 1,000,000,000 (used by English speaking countries). There are 3 sets of zeros (each set has three zeros) and this is also shown as 1 x 109. To make things more complex, one billion is also called 1000 million (but I’ve not heard this number used that often).
In long scale (used by continental Europe), there are 12 zeros in a billion (one million million), which is written out like 1,000,000,000,000. There are 4 sets of zeros (each set has three zeros) and this is also shown as 1 x 1012.
How many Zeros in a Trillion?
A trillion is a very large number. There are 12 zeros in a trillion when we use the short scale, 1,000,000,000,000 (used by English speaking countries). There are 4 sets of zeros (each set has three zeros) and this is also shown as 1 x 1012.
In long scale , there are 18 zeros in a trillion (1 million x 1 million x 1 million), 1,000,000,000,000.There are 6 sets of zeros (each set has three zeros) and this is also shown as 1 x 1018.
As we start increasing the numbers and adding in more groups of three zeros, we can see the numbers and terms are getting confusing and harder to manage, but this is made easier by having the zeros written out in groups of 3.
Just by looking at the number of zeros in a trillion, we can see the difference between a million, billion and trillion. Just imagining the difference between millionaires and billionaires is hard to conceive and understand just by looking at the numbers.
There is a number called a googol?
There is a very large number called a Googol, which is a single digit followed by one hundred zeros. It is written like this:
10,
But it is much easier to write it as 1 x 10100 (this will save a lot of time, but I doubt you’ll ever use this number)
This was termed by Milton Sirotta (he was a 9 years old), which is very similar to Google (maybe there is a connection).
Do you think you’ll ever use Googol in your life?
Long Scale and Short Scale?
When we speak of short scale and long scale, we don’t mean musical instruments in this article.
There are different naming conventions across the world with numbers across the world. For example, a billion in short scale is 1,000,000,000 with 9 zeros, but this is called a millard in long scale, which is often called a thousand million.
A billion in long scale is 1,000,000,000,000 with 12 zeros. This is all getting confusing, and it would have been easier if everyone used the same numerical system.
The main difference between the large numbers in the ending of the word. There is bill-ion and mill-ard.
A millard is the interval between a million and billion in long scale, but there is no interval in the short scale. When we increase the number by a group of three zeros, it jumps straight from one million to one billion. The table below should make more sense.
Who uses these scale and how do we avoid confusion?
The countries that use long scale are Continental Europe, majority of French speaking countries (former French colonies like Morocco, Algeria), German-speaking countries, Spanish speaking countries (most of South America) and many other countries.
The majority of English speaking countries (America, UK, Australia), Arabic speaking countries, Brazil and other countries use the short scale.
We avoid confusion between the two by using the International System of Units (SI), which uses a metric prefix, but this is used in engineering and scientific applications.
| Number Value | Short Scale Name | Long Scale Name |
| 1,000,000 | million | million |
| 1,000,000,000 | billion | millard |
| 1,000,000,000,000 | trillion | billion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000 | quadrillion | billard |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 | quintillion | trillion |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | sextillion | trillard |
| 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 | septillion | quadrillion |
Example 1: How many zeros in a Quintillion? (short scale)
If we look at the table above, we can clearly see there are 18 zeros in a Quintillion, and it is written out as 1,000,000,000,000,000,000.
An easy way to know if we wrote it out properly is by counting the groups of three zeros after 1. There are 6 groups of three, therefore, 6 x 3 = 18, which is correct.
Example 2: How many zeros in the weight of concrete?
Imagine a concrete base which is 20m x 20m on plan and is 1m deep.
We can calculate the volume of the shape by multiplying each term together, which give a value of 400 m3 (20 x 20 x 1).
The density of concrete is 2500 kg/m3
This means the total weight of concrete is 400 x 2500 = 1,000,000 kg.
That is one million kg (there are six zeros in a million)