The Certified Skeptic

Thursday, April 24, 2008 — Vancouver, WA

I can’t get my arms around the concept of some very large numbers. I’m not sure anyone can. When reading about the cost of our military activity in the Middle East, I start seeing the word “trillion” mentioned, and that the total cost of all this could be two or three trillion dollars. It’s easy to think that a trillion isn’t really much more than a billion. It sounds the same, just change a “b” to a “t”, it’s that easy. It can’t be that much more. Million, Billion, Trillion, Gazillion… they’re all just big numbers, right?

Some years ago, I read an article about the difference between a million and a billion. That article applied a concept we do understand — time. Here’s the facts: A million seconds is a little less than 12 days.

But a billion seconds is almost 32 years. That’s right, 12 days versus 32 years. Just stop and think about that for a moment.

Now, let’s consider what a trillion seconds is. A trillion is 1,000 times more than a billion. So, let’s see, 32 years times 1000 equals… what? that can’t be? 32,000 years?? Well, to be more precise, its 31,710 years.

From 12 days to 32 years to 31,720 years.

The next time you hear some politician talk about a trillion dollars think about this comparison. And then seriously consider voting the bastard out of office.

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