How Many Million is a Billion?
Etymology
The word ‘billion’ generated from two French words, ‘million’ and ‘bi’ in the 17th century. ‘Bi’, meaning ‘two’ indicated that a million to the power of two was equivalent to a million.
Do you know, How many Million is a Billion?
One millions = 1,000,000
One billion = 1000,000,000
1,000,0002 = 1,000,000,000,000 = 1012
But a billion is not equal to 102 anymore. It’s a former British amount named the long-scale method.
Long & Short Scale Method
A billion was considered different according to British and American methods. The long scale was a British method where a billion was considered equivalent to a million, i.e. 1012.
According to the short-scale method or American method, a billion is equal to a thousand million; i.e., 109.
Presently, the long-scale method doesn’t exist anymore. Both British and American methods consider a billion equivalents to a thousand million.
The same rule has been applied to trillions. A trillion used to be 1018 according to the long-scale method. Now it’s settled to 1012.
Comparison
Sometimes the difference between a million and a billion is highly underestimated. A billion is a thousand times higher than a million. A simple example may present it easily.
If we compare them in seconds, there are only 11.5 days in a million seconds. On the other hand, a billion seconds makes up to 31.5 years.
Another practical example is, if you can buy a house worth one million, you can buy a thousand houses with one billion. That’s almost a city.
If you want to create a pyramid with 1 and 0 by increasing a zero each time, you will get something like this-
One1Ten10One Hundred100One Thousand 1,000Ten Thousand10,000One Hundred Thousand100,000One Million 1,000,000Ten Million10,000,000One Hundred Million100,000,000One Billion1000,000,000
Bottom Line
The numbers get easily messed up with increasing zeros. But it’s easier to remember their difference when you know what they are called.
