Did the late great Carl Sagan really ever say "Billions and billions?"

gonnzo

"Carl Sagan: Scientist, author and television personality (deceased). Popularly (and incorrectly!) believed to use and over-use the phrase "billions and billions." Chad Miller notes that he saw Carl Sagan rebut the idea at a speech at Florida State University's "Distinguished Lecturer Series" in the late '80s. Sagan claimed that in scanning over his hundreds of writings, he was never able to find even one occurrence of his use of "billions and billions". http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?CarlSagan Jul 22 09, 10:37 PM

star_gazer

In this inspirational video clip Carl Sagan says "billion billion billion atoms" which is not "billions and billions" but it is very close. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXQ_7QUyb20&feature=related Jul 23 09, 12:17 AM

zbeckabee

To help viewers of Cosmos distinguish between "millions" and "billions", Sagan stressed the "b". Sagan never did, however, say "billions and billions". The public's association of the phrase and Sagan came from a Tonight Show skit. Parodying Sagan's affect, Johnny Carson quipped "billions and billions". The phrase has however now since become a humorous fictitious number - the Sagan. Nevertheless, "Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium," published by Random House in 1997 (ISBN 0-679-41160-7), is the last book written by renowned American astronomer and science popularizer Carl Sagan before his death in 1996. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billions_and_Billions:_Thoughts_on_Life_and_Death_at_the_Brink_of_the_Millennium#.22Billions_and_billions.22 Jul 23 09, 1:55 AM

star_gazer

And here is that Carson parady clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JfYbl1cM0g&feature=PlayList&p=FAE6F150D9F45F30&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=17 Jul 23 09, 2:29 AM