Marginally interesting information about numbers

[Reachy]

What's the difference between a million, a billion and a trillion?

A million seconds is 13 days.
A billion seconds is 31 years.
A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.

A million minutes ago was – 1 year, 329 days, 10 hours and 40 minute ago.
A billion minutes ago was just after the time of Christ.

A million hours ago was in 1885.
A billion hours ago man had not yet walked on earth.

A million dollars ago was five (5) seconds ago at the U.S. Treasury.
A billion dollars ago was late yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Treasury.

A trillion dollars is so large a number that only politicians
can use the term in conversation... probably because they
seldom think about what they are really saying. I've read that
mathematicians do not even use the term trillion!
Here is some perspective on TRILLION:

Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000.
The country has not existed for a trillion seconds.
Western civilization has not been around a trillion seconds.
One trillion seconds ago – 31,688 years – Neanderthals stalked the plains of Europe.

Million: 1,000,000
Billion: 1,000,000,000
Trillion: 1,000,000,000,000
Quintillion: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000
Sextillion: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Nonillion: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Centillion: 1 followed by 303 zeros

Cheers

Reachy

 

[WumpieJr]

A classic demonstration of the difference between "million" and "billion" is to pick up a piece of paper (or ruler, or whatever) and say that one corner is 0 and an adjacent corner is one billion. Then ask your subject to identify where on the edge of the paper one million lies. Most people will guess something about 1/3 or 1/4 across the paper. But the correct answer is that one million is almost indistinguishable from zero on that scale.

I like these numbers a lot though.

(Oh, and you missed quadrillion ^_^)

 

[London Colin]

A common language

It's also worth noting that the British billion has been devalued. It used to be that it was defined as a million million, but at some point we switched to the American definition.

 

[TXtourplayer]

Keep it positive

But the correct answer is that one million is almost indistinguishable from zero on that scale.

Damn, I'm going to use that scale when I look at my bank account, then my zero won't look so bad...LOL