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In English (I think this is universal anyway) we use the 1s, 10s, and 100s in a cycle. One, one thousand, one million; twenty two, twenty two thousand, twenty two million; one hundred and forty six, one hundred and forty six thousand, one hundred and forty six million, etc.

Who decided to cycle every (3x+1)th digit?

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    Note that SI inherited the tradition of incrementing by a thousand (mega-, giga-, tera-, peta-, etc.).2010-11-24
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    This would be more suitable on http://english.stackexchange.com/ . (BTW, "I think this is universal anyway" --> no, China and Japan cycles every (4x+1)th digit, and [India](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_numbering_system) every (2x+4)th...)2010-11-24
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    I think that this has as much right to be here as any question as to the definition of "primes" to exclude 1 or the "naturals" to include 0. It may be a linguistic convention, but it is a linguistic convention about describing mathematical objects. And keep in mind that the analogous development for counting in the antiquity needed no less a personage than Archimedes to propose it for the record!2010-11-24
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    I see one vote to close; I'm casting a virtual vote against closing due to the same reasons Niel mentioned.2010-11-24
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    I disagree with Niel and J.M., but regardless of the appropriateness of the question here, it seems to me that the answer would have to come from knowledge of the historical usage of number names in common language, not specifically in mathematical texts, so you would get a better answer at a linguistics forum.2010-11-24
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    I meant universal to English. Sorry.2010-11-24
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    @Drew: it is more culture-linked, than language linked. The "long-scale", with a restart every million has been used in UK into the 20th century, and the Lakh/Crore system is used in Indian English, for example.2010-11-26
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    A question related to that has been asked on english.SE http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2321/billion-and-other-large-numbers2010-11-26

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