How many zeros are in six billion?

Answer 1

In English speaking countries there are 9 zeros in six billion.

6,000,000,000

The number six billion is written as 6000000000 or with commas used for clarity, it would be 6,000,000,000. Each zero represents a location of different units:

1st zero is considered the ones column, a number there represents that number times one; e.g. 6 = six

2nd zero is considered the tens column, a number there represents that number times ten; e.5. 20 is 2 x ten = twenty and 26 is twenty-six.

3rd zero is considered the hundreds column, a number there represents that number times a hundred; 300 is 3 x 100 = three hundred and 326 is three hundred twenty-six.

4th zero is considered the thousands column, a number there represents that number times a thousand; e.g. 4000 is 4 x 1000 = 4 thousand.

5th zero is considered the ten-thousands column, a number there represents that number times ten-thousand; e.g. 70,000 is 7 x 10, 000 = seventy thousand

6th zero is considered the hundred-thousands column, a number there represents that number times one hundred-thousands; 500,000 = 5 x 100,000 = five hundred thousand

7th zero is considered the millions column, a number there represents that number times one million; e.g. 8,000,000 = 8 x 1,000,000 = 8 million

In a like manner the 8th zero is ten millions column and the 9th zero is the hundred millions column. Thus 999,999,999 is nine hundred ninety-nine million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine. Adding one to that pushes you into the billions or 999,999,999 plus 1 = 1,000,000,000 where the 1 is in the billions column; and thus 6,000,000,000 is equal to 6 x 1,000,000,000 = six billion.

I am not sure what the original answer with thirty eight zeros is, but in our usual decimal (base 10) system it is certainly a number much larger than 6 billion. Since the next group of three zeros is trillion and the next after that is quadrillion - the highest I know a name of (though I am sure there are official names above this); I would call it (if preceded by a 6) 6 hundred thousand quadrillion-quadrillion.

Further, even if the original answer were to represent a binary number (base 2) there would be only 32 digits to the right of the leading 1 and not all of them would be zeros.