6 ms·
What does 300m years mean? Is that 300 or 300 Million?
by rubyalex 13y ago
What does 300m years mean? Is that 300 or 300 Million?
- JohnTHaller 13y ago300 million.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- ChrisNorstrom 13y agoWasn't it 300 thousand?
- jonnathanson 13y agoI was confused by this, as well. Given the scale of geologic time, I'd assume they meant 300 million. But a single "M" often means thousand, especially if it's lowercase. So it's confusingly worded.
- ksrm 13y ago>But a single "M" often means thousand, especially if it's lowercase. Where? I can find no reference to this.
- jonnathanson 13y agoMost often in financial accounting, though conventionally, in other domains such as academia. Depending on the news outlet, some magazines and papers will also use "M" for thousand and "MM" for million, though that practice is probably dying out in the popular press. And of course, the "M" in "CPM" stands for thousand. "M" was originally an abbreviation for "mille," which is French for "thousand" (by way of Latin origins). Traditionally speaking, one "M" means thousand, and "MM" means thousand-thousand, or million. Example: http://blog.accountingcoach.com/what-does-m-and-mm-stand-for/ http://blog.accountingcoach.com/what-does-m-and-mm-stand-for...
- drucken 13y agoThe Guardian is a UK newspaper. "<num>m" always means Million in the UK, unlike continental Europe. I agree that the continued use of the abbreviation in the article itself is bad journalism.