Math geeks set us straight on how big a billion is

Judging from the number of views this seriously nerdy video has racked up, lots of us don't know our billions from our trillions. Don't blush if you're one of them: Mathematician James Grime and physicist Tony Padilla say that the concept is actually pretty brain-twisting. In addition to the Asian and Greek definitions of "billion," there's also "the correct English way and the incorrect American way" (note their snooty English accents), plus the "old way" and the "new way." But if you need words like "antipodean," "sextillion" and "10 to the power of 12" to explain these numbers, it's no wonder even brainiacs can't figure a way out of the national debt.