Long and short number scales?
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales
Is "billion" a thousand million (10^9) or a million million (10^12)? Numberphile video:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-52AI_ojyQ&t=5m30s
TL;DR: billion = bi-million = two of 10^6 = 10^{6x2} = 10^12. trillion = tri-million = 10^{6x3} = 10^18, and not 10^12. quadrillion, pent….
Conversely, plenty of languages continue to use long scale as the standard numbering system, and it used to be standard in English. Other cultures and languages use different systems altogether.
So, let's rephrase the question.
What's the point of the short scale?
The fact that something has always been done is not a reason to do it again.
First, I have not ignored the question. My answer to the question is right there is in my dissection and rephrasing of the question.
Second, the question as asked doesn’t make sense. Number scales are arbitrary; there is no ‘point’ for any one scale over another. Long, short, Chinese, Indian — so long as your interlocutor understands what you mean in the language and culture in which you’re speaking, neither has any more point than another.
Which is basically what my comment said, and plenty of people have thus far been able to interpret that without me needing to explain such.
There's no reason to switch to the short scale, that's the reason I guess.
AFAICT, the long scale was the original one. It was the short scale that was "invented" later, so the question should be: why was the short scale created?