Million, billion, trillion. What’s the difference?
Photo: MashGet, Flickr
What’s a trillion dollars? In the past couple of months we’ve heard the number tossed around like we are shopping for used cars.
“This ‘02 Windstar is $850 billion, but this ‘06 Fusion is $1.1 trillion.”
Here’s some examples from some recent news stories:
The federal budget deficit will hit an unparalleled $1.2 trillion for the 2009 budget year and the U.S. economy will likely contract by more than 2 percent, according to a new Congressional Budget Office report. [Source: MSNBC]
The testimony is another reminder to Wall Street that Washington has been the biggest force tugging at the market in recent weeks. That was the case Tuesday as investors showed their frustration with what they saw as a lack of details from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on how the government plans to direct more than $1 trillion in public and private aid to support the ailing financial system. [Source: MSNBC]
Million, billion, trillion…what’s the difference?
I was interested in how much difference there is between these numbers, so I did a quick google search and found a site called “Thought You Should Know”, which promises “to bring readers information and opinions about current affairs
that have been overlooked or ignored by the mainstream "news" purveyors.”
TYSKnews had the following illustration that really helped put the numbers into perspective for me:
A million seconds is 12 days.
A billion seconds is 31 years.
A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.
A million minutes ago was – 1 year, 329 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes ago.
A billion minutes ago was just after the time of Christ.
A million hours ago was in 1885.
A billion hours ago man had not yet walked on earth.
A million dollars ago was five (5) seconds ago at the U.S. Treasury.
A billion dollars ago was late yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Treasury.
[Source: http://www.tysknews.com/Depts/Taxes/million.htm]
So, there you have it. The difference between a billion seconds and a trillion seconds is 31, 657 years! Remember that comparison the next time you hear a politician throwing these numbers around like lose change.