Geneviève Guitel facts for kids

Geneviève Guitel was a French mathematician who lived from 1895 to 1982. She is famous for creating the terms long scale and short scale. These terms describe two different ways countries count very large numbers.

Her Life as a Mathematician

Geneviève Guitel became a math teacher in 1920. She taught at a school in Paris, France. She also wrote many important papers about mathematics. She published these papers for over 30 years, from 1943 to 1979.

Understanding Big Numbers

Geneviève Guitel helped us understand how different countries name very large numbers. She gave names to two main systems: the long scale and the short scale.

The Short Scale

The short scale is used in countries like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

• In this system, a billion means one thousand million (1,000,000,000). It's a 1 followed by 9 zeros.
• A trillion means one thousand billion (1,000,000,000,000). It's a 1 followed by 12 zeros.
• Each new name (like billion, trillion) is 1,000 times bigger than the last.

The Long Scale

The long scale is used in many European countries, like France and Germany.

• In this system, a billion means one million million (1,000,000,000,000). It's a 1 followed by 12 zeros. This is the same as a trillion in the short scale!
• A trillion means one million billion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000). It's a 1 followed by 18 zeros.
• Each new name (like billion, trillion) is one million times bigger than the last.

It can be confusing because the word "billion" means different things in different places! Geneviève Guitel's terms help us tell these systems apart.