What is a Quadrillion?
There are two systems in use for
naming numbers larger than a million. 
In the American system, the Latin prefix refers to the
number of groups of three zeros, not including the last
group of three, which represents a thousand. Thus in the
USA, a billion is 1,000,000,000 (109) and a quadrillion
is a mere 1,000,000,000,000,000. (1015).
In the British system, which is in use in the rest of the
world, the Latin prefix represents the power of a million,
thus a British billion is 1,000,000,000,000 (1012)
and a British quadrillion is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
(1024).
If you want to see what a stack of 1 Quadrillion (U.S.)
pennies might look like, click here.
To imagine what a stack of 1 Quadrillion pennies looks like
in the rest of the world, just view that same page one thousand
million times... (If you view it once a second, it should
only take you 31.7 years to do this.)
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