NOTE. there is no end of confusion in the counting system because of the different meanings given to the same word when using numbers bigger than nine hundred and ninety nine million nine hundred and ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine (999 999 999) this web site uses a powering system for numbers bigger than (999 999 999) using the powering system means 1000 000 000 is spoken as "one to the ninth" (there's only one more syllable in the sentence "one billion" than there is in the sentence "one to the ninth") with the added bonus it's much easier to write in its numerical form (1000 000 000 and 1^9) that's the crux of the problem right there laziness, whether it's in written form or spoken form it's easier to say "a billion" than it is to say "a thousand million" it's the slow or lazy speech patterns of the u.s. population that's at the bottom of this particular bit of confusion to capture a person's attention span, speech is abbreviated to a minimalist form (newspaper headlines and written t.v. headlines want to cram the message into as short a sentence as possible) the consequence is...