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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.

Community
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Catija
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  • 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? – Matt Samuel Jun 03 '15 at 20:29
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    This might be better on the English SE. –  Jun 03 '15 at 20:30
  • @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. – Catija Jun 03 '15 at 20:30
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    Maybe some interesting foreign word? Like japanese せん (sen). (Plug one of my favourite anime here: Sennen Joō) – mvw Jun 03 '15 at 20:30
  • @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. – Catija Jun 03 '15 at 20:32
  • @mvw I like the concept of sen... and I understand it (Japanese was my foreign language)... I was hoping for something that was in more standard use. I think it's interesting that there's not a common term for 1000^x when it's such a big part of our world. – Catija Jun 03 '15 at 20:36
  • I came to think of Japanese because they have some different concepts in their language, like different number words for different things. So I wonder if some language has your word. – mvw Jun 03 '15 at 20:38
  • To use “order of magnitude” for “a factor of ten” already always bothers me as being stupid. – Carsten S May 10 '16 at 21:53

2 Answers2

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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.

hjhjhj57
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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".

Jeppe Stig Nielsen
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