[seqfan] Re: Large English integer names: Mathematica vs. num2words

[Allan Wechsler]

There are ambiguities in the Conway-Guy system; the most obvious one is
"trecentillion", which could be interpreted as either the 103rd zillion, or
the 300th. The system tries to observe Latin liaison rules, and hence
prescribes "sedecillion" instead of "sexdecillion". Other large-number-name
users have been much more casual, just gluing together the Latin components
without an overly picky regard for Latin word-formation rules.

But I have to reemphasize: all the "authorities" -- ALL of them -- are just
making stuff up and hoping it will become consensus. That's what Conway and
Guy did; that's what several others have done. And the dictionaries can't
do anything else besides codify usage, though I have some evidence that
American Heritage did engage in some of their own word-invention.

On Mon, Apr 24, 2023 at 9:27 PM <hv at crypt.org> wrote:

> I think words are more the expertise of dictionaries than of either
> Mathematica or Python.
>
> There is useful information at [1] including a list of which dictionaries
> include each of the primary names, and an explanation of Conway and Guy's
> extended naming scheme; there is additional historical information at [2].
>
> Hugo
>
> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers
> [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales
>
> Hans Havermann <gladhobo at bell.net> wrote:
> :Michael Branicky and I have just been discussing this because I had found
> some issues in one of his OEIS b-files. He had used the Python script
> "num2words" and when I compared the Mathematica vs. the num2words 10^3n
> names, I found 22 discrepancies up to 10^303. Here they are (power of ten,
> first word is Mathematica, second is num2words):
> :
> :54, septendecillion, septdecillion
> :84, septenvigintillion, septvigintillion
> :102, trestrigintillion, tretrigintillion
> :114, septrigintillion, septtrigintillion
> :132, tresquadragintillion, trequadragintillion
> :144, septenquadragintillion, septquadragintillion
> :162, tresquinquagintillion, trequinquagintillion
> :174, septenquinquagintillion, septquinquagintillion
> :201, sesexagintillion, sexsexagintillion
> :204, septensexagintillion, septsexagintillion
> :231, seseptuagintillion, sexseptuagintillion
> :234, septenseptuagintillion, septseptuagintillion
> :252, tresoctogintillion, treoctogintillion
> :258, quintoctogintillion, quinoctogintillion
> :264, septenoctogintillion, septoctogintillion
> :267, octoctogintillion, octooctogintillion
> :270, novoctogintillion, novemoctogintillion
> :276, unonagintillion, unnonagintillion
> :288, quinonagintillion, quinnonagintillion
> :291, senonagintillion, sexnonagintillion
> :294, septenonagintillion, septnonagintillion
> :300, novenonagintillion, novemnonagintillion
> :
> :Of course I'm going with the Mathematica versions as being the correct
> ones. Maybe Python users can request a fix.
> :
> :--
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