Number of noughts adds to the confusion

David Arthur is correct in saying that the number of noughts in big numbers is important (Letters, November 27). However, a billion is described in the Oxford English Dictionary as being a million million. Forty years ago, Prime Minister Harold Wilson decided we should adopt United States usage and define a billion as a thousand million. He did this for the sake of simplicity in dealing with large numbers internationally. However, it is evident that many politicians and political commentators still show a lamentable lack of grasp of what is really very basic arithmetic. It might help, perhaps, if they considered the following: one million seconds is a bit over 11 days; one billion seconds is a bit over 32 years; one trillion seconds is more than 32,000 years.