We hear the words million, billion, and trillion quite a bit. And we know that a million is a lot, a billion is a whole lot more, and trillion is even more than that.
But here’s a good way to see how big the difference actually is.
How long is a million seconds?
First, let me ask you a question: How long do you think a million seconds is? In terms of days, weeks, years, decades, or whatever.
Turns out it’s 11.5 days. That’s it. Less than two weeks.
How long is a billion seconds?
Now, how about a billion?
A billion seconds is 31.7 years.
So a million seconds ago was last week, and a billion seconds ago was 1993.
How long is a trillion seconds?
Okay, last one. How long do you think a trillion seconds is?
A trillion seconds is 31,689 years.
A trillion seconds ago, humans were still in the Stone Age. Writing hadn’t been invented. Agriculture hadn’t been invented. We were hunter-gatherers using basic tools.
The structure and higher levels
As you can see in the image, the pattern here is to multiplication by 1,000—which adds three zeros. Here are the next few levels.
| Name | Zeros | Scientific |
|---|---|---|
| One | 0 | 10⁰ |
| Thousand | 3 | 10³ |
| Million | 6 | 10⁶ |
| Billion | 9 | 10⁹ |
| Trillion | 12 | 10¹² |
| Quadrillion | 15 | 10¹⁵ |
| Quintillion | 18 | 10¹⁸ |
| Sextillion | 21 | 10²¹ |
| Septillion | 24 | 10²⁴ |
| Octillion | 27 | 10²⁷ |
| Nonillion | 30 | 10³⁰ |
| Decillion | 33 | 10³³ |
| Undecillion | 36 | 10³⁶ |
The takeaway
- Big numbers are difficult for the human brain to intuitively process
- As you go up, you’re just multiplying by 1,000 and adding three zeros
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