History Of Large Numbers
Different cultures used different traditional numeral systems for naming large numbers. The extent of large numbers used varied in each culture.
Two interesting points in using large numbers are the confusion on the term billion and milliard in many countries, and the use of zillion to denote a very large number where precision is not required.
Read more about History Of Large Numbers: Ancient India, Classical Antiquity, Medieval India, Modern Use of Large Finite Numbers, Infinity
Famous quotes containing the words large numbers, history of, history, large and/or numbers:
“Always in England if you had the type of brain that was capable of understanding T.S. Eliot’s poetry or Kant’s logic, you could be sure of finding large numbers of people who would hate you violently.”
—D.J. Taylor (b. 1960)
“There are two great unknown forces to-day, electricity and woman, but men can reckon much better on electricity than they can on woman.”
—Josephine K. Henry, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 15, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“It’s not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“An ancient prophecy ... pronounced, That the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it!”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)