UK / USA Tool Terminology Translator

a few more

UK : USA

answerphone : answering machine billion : million million ( the USA usage has now taken over generally in the uk of 1 billion = 1000 million) (the) box, telly : television (set) flex : electric cord imperial (measurements ) : inches,feet,yards,miles metric (measurements) : European power point : electric socket Stanley knife : box cutter ? thousand million : billion ( the USA usage has taken over generally in the uk of 1 billion = 1000 million) valve : tube Vero board : matrix board video : vcr (machine) white goods : appliances wireless : radio

I forget now whether RCA connectors translate to phono or coax connectors here. And going the other way, Do Harwin,QM,SMA,BNC,PL259, "N" , "F" connectors etc make any sense in USA ?

While at it is there any concensus with connector parts and male and female / plug and socket. Does the gender refer to the electrical pin connection parts or the outer housing parts when they are not the same gender for each piece?

What about the Knockometer ..

never heard of it but i assume what we call an engineer's persuader for percussive maintenance, usefully they come in a range of sizes

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

What? I'm from the USA and I've always thought of a billion as 1000 million. I've only vaguely heard of 1 billion being 1 million million. I don't know anyone who thinks billion is anything but 1000 million personally.

--buddy

how about Weapons of mass destruction = Oil we wish to take control of

Buddy: You are correct.... math is math any where in the universe...... and a Billion = 1,000,000,000 which is exactly the equivalent to 1000 million or 1000 x 1,000,000 .....it can not be anything else and be correct.

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in

in

Up to perhaps about 10 or 20 years ago most people in the UK would have said billion = million million

Its 1000 million = 1billion..

yikes e do

Then they would have said wrong ... Out of curiosity, in your opinion was this out of a different definition for the word "billion" or were they just ignorant?

Bob

said

What does it list for "trillion" ?

million

I've ust looked in a UK dictionary published in 1960 billion = million million except USA and France where billion = 1000 million

On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 09:18:48 -0500, "kip" put finger to keyboard and composed:

Knockometer = hammer = American screwdriver

-- Franc Zabkar

Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

trillion = million million million except France where it means million million , no mention of USA.

There are two systems of naming large numbers ( sometimes called long scale and short scale ) both of which originated in France and are still in use today. They are described at this site:

As mentioned on this page the UK officially switched from billion = million million to billion = thousand million in the mid 1970s.

Mike Capel

capel AT mts DOT net

Thanks. Now I can understand why billion was a million million. The prefix (bi) meant million **2 (squared0 while tri meant million **3 (cubed). Interestingly, the number 1,000,000,000 was called "a thousand million or milliard" according to the site provided in the former English system.

Bob

I realized that I misread his post, which is why I cancelled mine. He was saying that 1 billion in the UK is (or at least used to be) 1 million million, which is correct.

--buddy

allen key: we use both allen wrench and hex key avo: if it's a tube type, here it's a VTVM (vacuum tube voltmeter; usually line-powered) or a VOM (volt-ohmmeter; usually battery-powered) earth: we use that term as well as ground Hellerman: groove joint; slip-lock (I think that's what u had in mind?) mains: we use both mains and line plug-in power supply: we also call it an ac adapter scope: we use all 3; or if we're feeling particularly elitist, a 'waveform analyzer' screwdriver: same (to distinguish from other drivers, such as nutdrivers)

billion: a million million is a trillion, period.. or it should be anyway. Check this out:

flex: here, someone might mistake it to mean an elastic band or a bungee cord valve: we use that term here as well, particularly if you're talking to tube amp lovers wireless: careful, as lots of Americans call their cellphones 'wireless'

RCA = phono; coax = F, UHF, BNC, etc..

QM: IDC or mini-IDC SMA: 50-ohm MIL-C; AMP (Amphenol) C; ILS SMA BNC: same PL259: UHF N: RF (RG-8, RG-58, RG-141, RG-225) F: most Americans will know you mean TV cable coax

Pretty much a consensus. For obvious reasons, Male = plug and Female = socket (usually called 'jack' in USA).

Good luck with your lexicon, Ray