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