Ways to comprehend how much a million is

[NW-Bound]

A million dollars should be a large sum of money, and it is. If we count that amount a dollar at a time, it does take a long time. Sadly, we do not spend money like we used to do in our childhood.

Now, want a big screen TV? That's $1000 gone, thank you. A new car? Kaching, $30,000 gone in one fell swoop. Suddenly, a million is not that big anymore. To make it bigger, one has to spend it more slowly.

In terms of numbers, here's something that still boggles my mind: a bill for one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollars. It was worth a few US pennies, maybe.

 

[Letj]

I read long time ago that you can not count to a million in your lifetime.

Sounds about right. I can't imagine anyone being able to do this, without going absolutely made that is.

 

[NW-Bound]

My laptop has the same resolution as ERD50's screen. Instead of trusting the manufacturer, I decided to count the pixels. I knew that I was taking the risk of going mad like Letj said in the above post.

But I kept counting more than 1 million. Far more. When I reached 1.2 million just partway through the screen, I decided that I must have miscounted, so I started over.

After starting over twice, I stopped and pondered if the manufacturer had not been so generous and gave me more than he advertised. Or perhaps I was losing my sanity like Letj warned.

And then, I figured it out...

My monitor is 1366⋅768 pixels

1366 ⋅ 768 = 1,049,088

pretty darn close, though I didn't count them, I'll take their word for it.

-ERD50

I was counting sub-pixels, meaning each of those RGB little thinggies. Hence, I got 3X what the screen resolution is!

 

[Semiretired2008]

Back in my interviewing days I learned that big numbers threw a lot of people for a loop. I used to write $23,762,876,432.38 on the board and ask the interviewee to tell me what 1% of it was. You would be surprised at how few could do it. Many could not even do it with pad and paper or even with a calculator, which I would offer after they could not do it in their head. The size of the $$ just daunted their imagination and created a mind block. They of course did not pass the interview...

 

[easysurfer]

1) I can comprehend 1,000.

2) I can one hundred 1000s.

3) A million is 10 of the number 2's above.

 

[easysurfer]

Don't know if it's true or false, but heard somewhere that most likely we'd take over a million step in our lifetime.

At first seems, no way! But then again. They say to try and take 10,000 steps a day to stay fit, so a million steps in a lifetime maybe doesn't seem that unlikely.

 

[RunningBum]

Don't know if it's true or false, but heard somewhere that most likely we'd take over a million step in our lifetime.

At first seems, no way! But then again. They say to try and take 10,000 steps a day to stay fit, so a million steps in a lifetime maybe doesn't seem that unlikely.

I take somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 steps running a mile. In 2010 I ran over 2000 miles, that's over 3,000,000 steps in the year. And it doesn't even count all the walking I did. Granted I run a lot more than most, but a million steps in a lifetime isn't that much.

 

[traineeinvestor]

To put it in perspective:

• a million dollars today is the equivalent of USD138,575.37 at the time I was born: Consumer Price Index Data from 1913 to 2012 - US Inflation Calculator (this explains why I feel poor)
• a million words is longer than the bible (about 785,000 words depending on which version you are looking at)
• a million words is only about a quarter of the US tax code (different sources will give different answers on this one)
• a million bacteria is a very very tiny fraction of the number of bacteria in and on our bodies: Human microbiome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• it takes less than ten days for the average human heart to beat a million times (a commonly cited average is 72 beats per minute)

 

[scrabbler1]

My favorite description of $1 Million was in the original (1974) version of the movie, "The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3." The ransom was for $1M and after it was counted and placed into a moneybag, it was given to two cops in a patrol car to be transported from the downtown Manhattan bank to the subway station. After the bag was handed to one cop, he placed it on the front seat between them and this quick but funny exchange followed about the bag itself:

Patrolman Miskowsky: This is a million dollars?
Patrolman O'Keefe: It's what it buys, Albert, not what it weighs.

LOL I loved that exchange.

 

[easysurfer]

I take somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 steps running a mile. In 2010 I ran over 2000 miles, that's over 3,000,000 steps in the year. And it doesn't even count all the walking I did. Granted I run a lot more than most, but a million steps in a lifetime isn't that much.

Yeah..doing the math. If one takes the 10000 steps a day, that'll be 1MIL steps in only 100 days.

 

[marko]

Sorry Marko, 22 lbs.

If $1M in $100 bills weighs 220 lbs, wouldn't the same amount in $10 bills be 2200 lbs? There's be ten times more of 'em. (assuming the same weight)

I'm freaking out now! My math is awful so when someone corrects me I usually assume they're right...this time, could someone be worse than me?

Then again, I could be wrong!

 

[MichaelB]

According to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 454 notes weigh one pound. U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing - FAQ Library

What is the weight of a note?
The approximate weight of a note, regardless of denomination is (1) one gram. There are 454 grams in one (1) U.S. pound, therefore, there are 454 notes in (1) one pound (Avoirdupois system). Using the troy system, there are (12) twelve ounces in (1) one pound; therefore, if one note weighs approximately (1) one gram, then (1) troy pound contains approximately 375 notes.

$1M in $1 bills would weigh 2203 lbs (rounded). In $10's, 220 lbs, and in $100's, 22 lbs. and so on.

 

[marko]

According to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 454 notes weigh one pound. U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing - FAQ Library
$1M in $1 bills would weigh 2203 lbs (rounded). In $10's, 220 lbs, and in $100's, 22 lbs. and so on.

So I was off by a few zeros. Zeros don't count, so......

 

[Tadpole]

So I was off by a few zeros. Zeros don't count, so......

And there we have it. A person who not only understands a million but also a billion, a trillion, etc. And, funny thing, I find myself agreeing somehow.

 

[Notmuchlonger]

I visualize 200000 packages of smoked bacon at my local store.

 

[veremchuka]

I read long time ago that you can not count to a million in your lifetime.

If you did some simple math you'd see how silly that is, no offense is meant to you. 1M seconds is 11 1/2 days approximately.

I love numbers, it is amazing how people just can't grasp them. I read "Only a Trillion" by Issac Asimov published 1957. Great book though I doubt some of the things he says in it, IIRC it had to do with the number of atoms in the world or solar system, it just seemed impossibly low the number he assigned.

 

[Nords]

... one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollars.

As soon as I read that, this popped into my head:
[Dr. Evil] One hundred TRILLion Zimbabwe dollars! [/Dr. Evil]

 

[NW-Bound]

I am not much of a movie watcher, so I had to search the Web and the following was the only thing I found.

Austin Powers - 100 billion dollars - YouTube

 

[foxfirev5]

Yeah..doing the math. If one takes the 10000 steps a day, that'll be 1MIL steps in only 100 days.

Yeah, our company health plan uses the 10k step plan every year. Even at my rate I'm way over a million steps each year.

 

[ejman]

easy peasy $1 million = 3 or so houses with the corresponding acreage around here.

 

[HighRoller]

1 million US dollar bills laid end to end would streach ~96.9 miles or ~155.9 kilometers