Submitted 2 days ago by jeena@piefed.jeena.net to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Million seconds → ~11.6 days
Billion seconds → ~31.7 years
Trillion seconds → ~31,700 years
No matter how many ways I see it represented, I still can’t truly grasp how much more a billion is compared to a million. And I suspect most people are in that same boat.
“how much more is a billion than a million? About a billion”
Im sure we’re not designed for such massive massive massive numbers.
Try sand next time. You can see individual grains, and you’ve walked on a beach. These experiences should give you some intuition.
I think that time is probably the most relatable and human scaled for million to billion, but even that goes out if scale between billion and million.
One-dimensional is the easiest way to get a rough idea of the difference between a million and a billion.
Put a stack of a million bank notes on its side, and that’s roughly a walk across a parking lot.
Put a stack of a billion bank notes on its side, and that’s a road trip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YUWDrLazCg
It’s interesting that the numbers per se are meaningless to us. Yes, billion is a thousand times more, but what is 11 days thousand times? No idea, long. Turns out it’s 31 years long! Nice thought.
11574.074 days
Great… I’ve been alive for over 1.7 billion seconds. Glad you found a way to make me feel even older 🤷♂️😀
700 millionaire gang where are you?
I’m more than a billion seconds old
And if you earned a dollar every second you where alive, you were just a small time billionaire.
I should have a party when I turn 10^9^ seconds old.
BreadOven@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
No one should have a billion dollars. Thanks for the visualization though.
jeena@piefed.jeena.net 4 hours ago
The concept movie In Time with Justin Timberlake thematizes it. In it the people don’t have abstract money like us, they have lifetime which ticks down. The poor people live from day to day and only make money for one more day, the rich have milions of years.
BreadOven@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Interesting. I haven’t seen that one.