Reply to: £1MM a day consultants

[d000hg]

I disagree. I come from an engineering background. Everything is done by powers to the multiple of 3.

Something x 10^3 is a thousand somethings
x 10^6 is a million things
x 10^9 a billion
x 10^12 a trillion

makes far more sense and demonstrates that despite the US sticking to 'imperial' measures that aren't even imperial, they do have some useful ideas.

Indeed. Even now, a million million is rarely a number we use outside of pure science or (recently) IT. How would we whinge about billionaires if there aren't any?

[vetran]

No idea what you're talking about.

Neither did the developers.

[NotAllThere]

Sort your HTML / BBCode out!

No idea what you're talking about.

[Lance]

It was a sad day in 1974 when Harold Wilson confirmed that the UK would use the short scale definition of a billion due to increasing use and influence by the USA and its inability to handle big numbers.

I disagree. I come from an engineering background. Everything is done by powers to the multiple of 3.

Something x 10^3 is a thousand somethings
x 10^6 is a million things
x 10^9 a billion
x 10^12 a trillion

makes far more sense and demonstrates that despite the US sticking to 'imperial' measures that aren't even imperial, they do have some useful ideas.

[Lance]

As reported here in authoritative newspaper

rates must be going up! of October it employed 1,230 consultants. Test and trace has average daily contractor rates of £1,100

note 1100 a day is average !

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...on-consultants

you are assuming that the individual worker is getting that money. That is a very poor assumption and almost certainly wrong.

Are you aware of consultancy firms like Accenture, Cap Gemini, Deloitte's, etc? If you are then you know why your assumption is dumb.

[vetran]

https://ucum.org/ucum.html

sounds like a mouthful!

[jamesbrown]

https://ucum.org/ucum.html

[ladymuck]

Nope.

Standard prefixes for the metric units of measure (multiples)
[TR]
Prefix nameN/Adeca-hecto-kilo-mega-giga-tera-peta-exa-zetta-yotta-[/TR]
[TR]
Prefix symbol[TD][/TD]
[TD]da-[/TD]
[TD]h-[/TD]
[TD]k-[/TD]
[TD]M-[/TD]
[TD]G-[/TD]
[TD]T-[/TD]
[TD]P-[/TD]
[TD]E-[/TD]
[TD]Z-[/TD]
[TD]Y-[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
Factor[TD]10⁰[/TD]
[TD]10¹[/TD]
[TD]10²[/TD]
[TD]10³[/TD]
[TD]10⁶[/TD]
[TD]10⁹[/TD]
[TD]10¹²[/TD]
[TD]10¹⁵[/TD]
[TD]10¹⁸[/TD]
[TD]10²¹[/TD]
[TD]10²⁴[/TD]
[/TR]

Sort your HTML / BBCode out!

[NotAllThere]

This is also how the SI units are named, no need for a new name at a thousand million.

Nope.

Standard prefixes for the metric units of measure (multiples)

deca, hecto, kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta, exa, zetta, yotta
10^0, 10^1,10^2,10^3,10^6,10^9,10^12,10^15,10^18,10^21,10²⁴

[NigelJK]

Linguistically you only use a new term when required, so:
100x10 is thousand, with 999 being the largest number available in the Hundreds
1000x1000 is Million, with 999,999 being the largest number available in Thousands
1,000,000,000,000 is a Billion, with 999,999,999,999 being largest number available in the Millions.

This is also how the SI units are named, no need for a new name at a thousand million.

[NowPermOutsideUK]

The 1100 number is an average rate and includes people I imagine who are taking tests in the car park - Not senior PM / engineer types

In either case that 1100 a day on avergae is serious money no matter how you look at it

[Whorty]

Deloitte's were charging a reduced rate. They normally stiff the taxpayer for way more than that.

Back in mid 2000's when I worked for Deloitte they charged me out for much more than that.

[WTFH]

To be fair, billions and trillions by the Yank definition are far more commonly encountered orders of magnitude than 10^12 and 10^18.

So that's one innovation that I think makes sense.

I thought it went back to Latin - you had 4 levels
I
X
C
M
Then after that it repeated, but you didn't go up a level until you had used all the lower ones.
The American way only uses 3 levels when you get beyond one thousand.

[OwlHoot]

It was a sad day in 1974 when Harold Wilson confirmed that the UK would use the short scale definition of a billion due to increasing use and influence by the USA and its inability to handle big numbers.

To be fair, billions and trillions by the Yank definition are far more commonly encountered orders of magnitude than 10^12 and 10^18.

So that's one innovation that I think makes sense.

[Mordac]

Wow, only £1,100 a day, charge rates have really dropped then.

Deloitte's were charging a reduced rate. They normally stiff the taxpayer for way more than that.