# Really big numbers

**URL:** <https://community.wanikani.com/t/really-big-numbers/44542>\
**Category:** Japanese Language\
**Created:** [June 24, 2020, 2:07pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/really-big-numbers/44542 "2020-06-24T14:07:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![2000kanji](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/2000kanji/32/310132_2.png) [@2000kanji](https://community.wanikani.com/u/2000kanji)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2020, 2:07pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/really-big-numbers/44542/1 "2020-06-24T14:07:06Z")

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An [NHK easy news article](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10012480091000/k10012480091000.html) used １兆の４０万 for 4\*10^17 (400 quadrillions). According to [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_numerals),  
１兆 (ちょう）is 10^12,  
１京 (けい or きゅう）is 10^16

So they could have written １京の４０ (40 \* 10^16) instead of １兆の４０万 (400,000 \* 10^12), which both give 4 \* 10^17.

Why haven’t they?

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**Author:** ![Belthazar](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/belthazar/32/4469_2.png) [@Belthazar](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Belthazar)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2020, 2:15pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/really-big-numbers/44542/2 "2020-06-24T14:15:09Z")

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You’d write ４０京, rather.

They didn’t, because although those higher numbers exist, it’s extremely rare to see anything larger than 兆.

You can see it in English, too - newsreaders are more likely to say “four thousand trillion dollars” than they are to say “four quadrillion dollars”.

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**Author:** ![Leebo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/leebo/32/439476_2.png) [@Leebo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Leebo)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2020, 2:18pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/really-big-numbers/44542/3 "2020-06-24T14:18:25Z")

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It’s also more dramatic to say 400000 times [an already really huge number] than just [another really huge number], because people tend to have trouble imagining numbers over a certain size anyway.

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/4X/6/2/a/62a8b0f4c59ff2c5b6651ffcf43531480b3e5297.png) [@system](https://community.wanikani.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 2:18pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/really-big-numbers/44542/4 "2021-06-24T14:18:32Z")

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