Did you ever wonder how big a billion or million are? They are 1,000 times different.
Which is greater
2 billion = 2,000,000,0005 thousand = 5,0008 million = 8,000,000
The number of zeros tells the value — ten times different for each zero. How about this method, count the zeros.
|
Number |
Zeros/places AFTER THE VISIBLE NUMBER |
Zeros/places AFTER THE FIRST DIGIT |
Short Notation* |
|
5,700,000,000 |
0 |
9 |
5.7E9 |
|
5,700,000 Thousand |
3 |
9 |
5.7E9 |
|
5,700 Million |
6 |
9 |
5.7E9 |
|
5.7 Billion |
9 |
9 |
5.7E9 |
Electronic calculators use an “E” to indicate the number of zeros/places to be added.* For example “5.7E9” means 9 places after the “5.” or 5,700,000,000.
Now, when you read the newspaper headlines, look at the last number first to get the scale.
___________________________
* AKA “Scientific Notation,” the exponent of 10 as a multiplier.
Just different “words” to describe “snow” by Eskimos? Same thing? Or, different ways to write down my daughter’s college
debt. Fun for math linguists.
Trump wants $5.7E9 to build a wall on the southern border.
For illustration, “County officer wants $5.7E6 to build a wall around the ball field.”
Reading the last number of each amount, we can see one of the amounts is 1,000 times — 9-6 is 3 zeros — more than the other.
That’s all I’m saying.
1,000,000 is NOT 1,000 more than 1,000.
1,000,000 is NOT 1,000 plus 1,000.
10 + 10 is not 100.
No, no! It’s not Eskimo snow.
The point I failed to make is that the public doesn’t understand how much 1 million is. Most people see 1 million as 1 thousand more than a thousand.
It is one-thousand thousands, not “just more than”!
A million is one-hundred, one-hundred, one-hundreds.
100 x 100 x 100 = 1,000,000
A million is one-thousand, one-thousands.
1,000 x 1,000 = 1,000,000
The point is, when the headlines say the wealthy earn 46 million dollars, it’s NOT JUST A LITTLE BIGGER THAN 46 THOUSAND. It is 1,000 times as much.
If you make $1,000 a week, you would have to work 46,000,000 weeks to earn that much. That is 880,000 years and you’d be paying for your food and rent all that time, too.
The problem is using words to communicate the number of places in a value grossly under-represents the value. Pundits and newspapers saying a-million of one thing and a-billion of another does not make it clear the difference is a multiplier of one-thousand times, not just 1,000.
It’s not just another Eskimo word for snow. There is a major inequity here.