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How Big Is a Million, Billion and Trillion?

Millons, billions, trillions - we've heard it all, but do we really understand them? Most people know that a trillion is bigger than a million for example, but just how big is the difference really? How about we find out!?

Time 


 Here'a a neat exercise. Without doing any math or calculations, I want you to try to guess how long it was 1 million seconds ago….Okay, got a number in your head? The answer is:

11. 52 days 

Hmmm…interesting. But here's the better part. Now that you know how long it was 1 million seconds ago, I want you to guess at how long it was a billion seconds ago…Got it? What did you guess? A month or two? Well, it turns out the answer is:

32 years 

Wow! I don't know about you, but I really underestimated that one. If you're under 32, that means you haven't even existed for a billion seconds…and yet, a million seconds was less than two weeks ago. Okay, now that we know that, let's do the same for a trillion. Take a guess…The answer is:

32 000 years

Holy shit! That's a massive difference….but if you do the calculation, each one is a factor of 1000 bigger than the previous (meaning you multiply by 1000 to go from million to billon, etc.). Still, we always seem to underestimate this kind of stuff.

How Long Would It Take to Count to Each? 


Counting to a million? About 2 weeks (go ahead - try it!) 

Counting to a billion? About 50 years! 

Counting to a trillion? About 50 000 years (don't even try to do this one)! 

Random Interesting Comparisons 

Bill Gates has made billions of dollars…so much that he's basically made $3000/minute and $50/second since he started Microsoft. Imagine the number of pizzas I could buy by being Bill Gates for just a minute... 

A million millimetres is 1 kilometre (walking down the street). A trillion millimetres would take you around the world 25 times! 

And finally, a nice picture to visualize a million, billion, and trillion dollars: 

 

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