So… I am curious how this works in some languages even today.
In English, the naming convention for very large or very small numbers quickly becomes formulaic and based on root prefixes for small numbers. It eventually starts to become unwieldy anyway, but in practices for really big numbers we usually only need a few named reference points defined by functions of some kind that are compactly expressable.
But in Chinese, at least up to 10^28-1, you need a new word and new character every 4 orders of magnitude, and IDK what happens after that. Anyone know the Mandarin for centillion? How about an octigintillion centillions (octigintcentillion?)?
So… I am curious how this works in some languages even today.
In English, the naming convention for very large or very small numbers quickly becomes formulaic and based on root prefixes for small numbers. It eventually starts to become unwieldy anyway, but in practices for really big numbers we usually only need a few named reference points defined by functions of some kind that are compactly expressable.
But in Chinese, at least up to 10^28-1, you need a new word and new character every 4 orders of magnitude, and IDK what happens after that. Anyone know the Mandarin for centillion? How about an octigintillion centillions (octigintcentillion?)?