数字単位

[Sunny Pig]

Have you wondered what is the next unit above 「万」? I found some further units of Japanese numbers. The following table first gives the kanji of the unit, its hiragana, English equivalent and its mathematical sign in terms of powers of ten.

BIG UNITS

百（ひゃく）- hundred - 10^2
万（まん）- ten thousand - 10^4
億（おく）- hundred million - 10^8
兆（ちょう）- one trillion - 10^12
京（けい）- ten quadrillion - 10^16
垓（がい）- hundred quintillion - 10^20
杼（じょ）- one septillion - 10^24
穣（じょう）- ten octillion - 10^28
溝（こう）- hundred nonillion - 10^32
澗（かん）- one undecillion - 10^36
正（せい）- ten duodecillion - 10^40
載（さい）- hundred tredecillion - 10^44
極（ごく）- one quindecillion - 10^48
恒河沙（ごうがしゃ） - ten sexdecillion - 10^52
阿僧祗（あそうぎ）- hundred septendecillion - 10^56
那由他（なゆた）- one novemdecillion - 10^60
不可思議（ふかしぎ）- ten vigintillion - 10^64
無量大数（むりょうたいす）- hundred unvigintillion - 10^68

SMALL UNITS

割（わり）- 10^-1
分（ぶ） - 10^-2
厘（りん）- 10^-3
毛（もう）- 10^-4
糸（し）- 10^-5
忽（こつ）- 10^-6
微（び）- 10^-7
繊（せん）- 10^-8
沙（しゃ）- 10^-9
塵（じん）- 10^-10
埃（あい）- 10^-11
渺（びょう）- 10^-12
漠（ばく）- 10^-13
模糊（もこ）- 10^-14
逡巡（しゅんじゅん）- 10^-15
須臾（しゅゆ）- 10^-16
瞬息（しゅんそく）- 10^-17
弾指（だんし）- 10^-18
刹那（せつな）- 10^-19
六徳（りくとく）- 10^-20
虚空（こくう）- 10^-21
清浄（せいじょう）- 10^-22

Notice that for small numbers, the units start off with "standard units", then using very small objects (etc. sand), then extremely short time and finally emptiness.

Note that this is purely for information because anything above 10^12 is considered to be obscure, plus the facts that astronomical numbers are never expressed in kanji.

[clay]

Wow!

[Daisuke]

Huh, i didn't even know some of the higher ones... quintrillion threw me off!

[clay]

Really all you need to know is up to 億　（おく） or possibly　兆 (ちょう）. Occationally you see those on the news.

I like to say 一億万円 as a joke when asked about how much something is. I don't know why, but it just seems to roll off my tongue...