how do say 1,000,000,000?

last Wed received a call from Chung Wah...
suppose to interpret for a speaker for Full Gospel Business man meeting...
so juz now i went to Ponderosa for the meeting...
after makan and P&W, they introduced the speaker...
so i went up...

well, certain phrases got stuck, can't translate...
but then came to word '1 billion'... i also got stuck..
dunno how to translate then...
after that speaker said '1 trillion'...
my goodness, i never use 1 trillion for chinese before, how to translate?
so someone shouted '一兆' (yi zhao)

after the meeting someone came and told me that billion is '十亿'
and trillion is '一兆'...
a sister said, 'now the new term is quadzillion' (wow, never heard b4)

so when i came back i searched, wanna make sure how to translate...
ha i found out lots of things...
let me tell u abt English version 1st...

If you are American, 1 billion is undoubtedly 1,000,000,000. (1 thousand miliion)
If you are British, on the other hand, a billion may be 1,000,000,000,000 (a million million)

'quadzillion'? no such term.. only quadrillion, which is 15 zeroes
Quintillion has 18 zeros
Sextillion has 21 zeros
Septillion has 24 zeros (more... to go)

ever wonder what is a gazillion?
dictionary tells u is an indefinitely large number..
but someone actually calculated...
the answer is: a Gazillion has 86430 zeroes?
the is the explanation:
From Gazzen, from Latin "earthly edge", or end of the earth, abbreviated to gaz (literally 28810 ancient Greek miles, been one full revolution of the globe) so is 28810x3 and it equals to 86430

ok, now the chinese...
more confusing...
中国古代表示数量的单位依次是：个、十、百、千、万、亿、兆、京、垓、秭。
　　亿、兆、京、垓、秭等位数词所表之数，不仅古今有异，而且就是在古代都有上中下三种进数法：下数以十万为亿，十亿为兆，十兆为京，十京为垓， 十垓为秭；中数以万万为亿，万万亿为兆，万万兆为京，万万京为垓，万万垓为秭；上数以亿亿为兆，兆兆为京，京京为垓，垓垓为秭。由于亿、兆、京、垓、秭有 三种进数法，它们就很少被使用。如，中华人民共和国成立前，中国有四万万人，而不会说中国有四亿人。
　　在现代汉语里，百万为兆，万万为亿。京、垓、秭等单位未有新定义。为避免混淆，京、垓、秭等单位亦未被使用。除少数场合用兆外，百万以上数 字的进位是：百万、千万、亿、十亿、百亿、千亿、万亿、十万亿、百万亿、千万亿、亿亿、十亿亿、百亿亿、千亿亿、亿亿亿……。 如：“123,456,789,012,345,678,901”的正确读法，是“一亿亿亿二千三百四十五亿亿六千七百八十亿九万亿零一百二十三亿四千五 百六十七万八千九百零一”；“7,654,321,234,567”如写成或读成“七秭六垓五京四兆三亿二千一百二十三万四千五百六十七”，恐怕无人能看 懂或听懂了

so 1 trillion suppose to be 1 千亿..
but first, what is 1 trillion? british or american?
ha! since no standard answer i dun hv to bother..

ha, i juz cldn't figure out...
anyway, it's over, i dun hv to remember...

u confuse now? ;-p