Why is Elon Musk attacking Wikipedia? Because its very existence offends him | Zoe Williams
www.theguardian.com
The X owner has no time for a democratic experiment dedicated to knowledge. He would rather yell puerile ‘jokes’ into the ether, writes Zoe Williams

Now is a good time to flood Wikipedia with donations. For the first time in my life, i have just donated to them and will do so again. You can do it too for a minimum of €2, no requirement for recurring donations or any nonsense.

  • Logi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    161·
    1 year ago

    Only in English is this weird naming system used and originally only in American English. You can put it in the pile over there with the miles and pounds and other oddities.

    Other languages have milliard between million and billion, billiard after billion etc.

    • macrocephalic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Miles and pounds came to America from England, but miles were the common system at least as far back as the Romans.

      Short form numbers are used throughout the English speaking world and are the international scientific standard.

      Why is is that you think that your system of squaring makes more sense than the system of a new name for every third power of ten?

      • Logi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Short form is used in English only and was reluctantly adopted outside of the US since the 'mericans weren’t going to budge. Any science done in other languages uses the more logical form. I’ve done it myself in 3 of them. And it’s weird how I fluently translate between American billion and international milliard or American trillion and international billion. But I’m sure there is going to be a rocket blown up over this at some point.

        Why more logical? Billion, prefix bi for 2 is million squared. Trillion, prefix tri for 3 is million cubed. Septillion, prefix sep for 7 is? Honestly, though, at the end of the day it doesn’t matter that much. It’s just grating that were being yanked backwards. However slightly. And yes, that pun was intentional.

        Sure, the US didn’t come up with the imperial measuring system but everyone else has moved on. Miles were used by the Romans but were they the same miles? Everyone had their own foot… the story about Napoleon being short was simply that he was measured in French feet and they were longer than English feet so he amounted to fewer of them. I guess it’s slightly better now that there is only one set* of archaic pre-enlightenment units in play :shrug:

        *having said all that, some of the US measurements don’t quite coincide with the UK ones but I can’t remember any if those details. But it’ll probably kill a other rocket too.

        PS I dare you to look up the Swedish mile.