Donald Knuth and the ancient Chinese have independently come up with exponential number systems:
unit KNUTH * ANCIENT CHINA
10^0 one 一
10^1 ten 十
10^2 hundred 百
10^4 myriad 萬
10^8 myllion 億
10^16 byllion 兆
10^32 tryllion 京
10^64 quadryllion 垓
10^128 quintyllion **
10^256 sextyllion 穣
10^512 septyllion 溝
10^1024 octyllion 澗
10^2048 nonyllion 正
10^4096 decyllion
10^5096 載 (calc error??)
10^8192 undecyllion
10^10192 極 (calc error??)
10^16384 duodecyllion
10^32768 tredecyllion
10^65536 quattuordecyllion
10^131072 quindecyllion
10^262144 sexdecyllion
10^524288 septendecyllion
10^1048576 octodecyllion
10^2097152 novemdecyllion
10^4194304 vigintyllion
* Knuth's system appears in Mathematical Gardner by David A. Klarner.
** Character not available in Unicode.
Example:
123,456,789 is one hundred twenty three million four hundred fifty six thousand seven hundred eighty nine or
one myllion twenty three hundred fourty five myriad sixty seven hundred eighty nine.
Later in the 17th Century, the Chinese have changed their numbering system to increments of eight digits, and also added new places with Sanskrit names. Imported into Japan, the definitions of these units were later changed several times until today's system of increments of four digits emerged, with the definitions of places after fukashigi disagreeing among sources.
The American counting system was a 17th century French invention. The French used this until they reverted back to their 15th century version, more popular in Europe. In the 1970's, England became in sync with the American system for business and financial reasons.