Kay Four - How Much is a Billion?

How Much is a Billion?

Thursday, 13. November 2008, 21:28:14

How Much Is A Billion?

The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" casually think about whether you do, or don't, want that politician spending your tax money!!

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but an advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure in perspective in one of its releases:

A billion seconds ago, it was 1959.

A billion minutes ago, Jesus was alive.

A billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

And....

A billion dollars ago, was only 8 hours and 20 minutes at the rate Washington spends

Let Me Hold That Seat For YouLet's Cancel Christmas

Comments

rfhurley # 13. November 2008, 21:37

An actual Beltway saying:

"A few billion here; a few billion there. Pretty soon you're talking real money."

Hilarious, huh?

Mickeyjoe_irl # 14. November 2008, 13:31

Everytime they talk about large numbers in my college classes there's always a mention of where a billion is defined as a thousand million. 1,000,000,000 or a million million 1,000,000,000,000.

momable # 16. November 2008, 06:00

Yep, even billion is a different number in Europe and Great Britian.

Think it would be fixed up.

The same thinking must be why driving on different sides of the road evolved and feet versus metrics.

KayFour # 16. November 2008, 13:16

I can still hear Carl Sagan's voice (from the Cosmos TV specials) saying "Billions and Billions of Stars."

So, MIckey, can you do a Carl Sagan imitation for your class?

Hi Elly,

I always wondered why the Americans chose feet instead of meters. There is far more logic to meters, although I am still a feet and inches kind of girl.

Mickeyjoe_irl # 16. November 2008, 14:11

First I have to find out who Carl Sagan is.

Mickeyjoe_irl # 16. November 2008, 14:54

Ok, now I know. Though he didn't offically say it.

More likely he was measuring in Sagans.

Finally, more on this how much is a billion business.

rfhurley # 16. November 2008, 21:13

I always wondered why the Americans chose feet instead of meters. There is far more logic to meters, although I am still a feet and inches kind of girl.

The US did, in fact, try to convert to the metric system back when I was a kid. We were scheduled to be entirely metric by 1976.

Um... that didn't happen...

The teachers didn't fully understand it (same thing happened with "New Math", which involved a lot of Set Theory), and the parents thought it was some sort of Communist plot.

Apparently things haven't changed that much. The Repugnican ticket was trying to scare Americans into not voting for Obama, because his ideas sounded socialist.

KayFour # 17. November 2008, 22:26

Mickeyjo,

I had NO IDEA there was a measurement called a Sagan! thanks for enlightening me.

KayFour # 17. November 2008, 22:29

Robert,

I remember the whole "New Math" scare. My parents thought the same thing: At the very least it was a Communist plot.

And they DID try to teach me the metric system in school... and like you said, it didn't work.

Now the REAL question is, how much does a stone weigh? Or how much does a person weigh in stones, is more to the point.

Mickeyjoe_irl # 17. November 2008, 23:02

Now there's one I do know. 1 stone = 14 pounds.