|
A tenth of a percent is often a rounding error. So the difference between a million and a billion truly is about a billion. When the above isn’t enough to light a bulb, I like introduce that as analogous to pennies. 1 penny is $0.01
10 pennies is $0.1
100 pennies is $1
1,000 pennies is $10
10,000 pennies is $100
100,000 pennies is $1,000
1,000,000 pennies is $10,000
10,000,000 pennies is $100,000
100,000,000 pennies is $1,000,000
1,000,000,000 pennies is $10,000,000 Most people understand that ten million dollars is not just a different amount but a distinct kind of amount from ten thousand dollars. The powers of ten seem to become clearer with a smaller starting amount. Once they grasp the above, point out that the relationship is the same if everything starts 100 times as large. There’s also a great one out there comparing 1,000 to 1 million to 1 billion seconds, converted to years plus days. |