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September 24, 2008

Big Numbers Economy

A lot of big numbers are getting tossed around these days. Numbers like trillion.

We can lose sight of how big a trillion really is. This helps:

1 million seconds = 11 days

1 billion seconds = 32 years

1 trillion seconds = 32 thousand years

Or to put it another way:

A million seconds ago was the week before last.

A billion seconds ago, I was in grad school.

A trillion seconds ago there were Neanderthals in Europe.

Trillion is a big number.

Posted by Jonathan at September 24, 2008 10:27 PM  del.icio.us digg NewsVine Reddit YahooMyWeb

Comments

Thanks for that. All that ought to be tattooed across Congressional foreheads... I would suggest Bush, as well, but he can't read.

Posted by: edward Beardsley at September 25, 2008 11:45 AM

Now, the Neanderthals are in Washington.

Posted by: Bob at September 29, 2008 10:32 AM