Million? Billion? Whats the difference?
01-03-2010, 01:36 PM
#1
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Joined APC: Nov 2009
Position: Jora UL, left seat
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Million? Billion? Whats the difference?
One reads here and there that budgets were overspent with so and so many billion dollars...
Have you ever wondered how much a billion dollar really is?
We have a general idea what we can get for a million dollar... so the amount of money is familiar. But how much is really a billion?
Lets visualize one million dollars:
Stack one thousand dollar bills on top of each other in a stack till you get a stack of a million. That will be one thousand sheets, the equivalent of 2.4 inches high stack approximately.
Then lets visualize a billion dollars:
A billion dollars is one thousand stacks of a million dollars. And since we just learned that one million is 2.4 inches high, we then know that a billion should be 1000 times that. A billion dollar stack of thousand dollar bills is then 2400 inches tall...
2400 inches is approximately 200 feet.
So each time you read that budgets were broken with a couple of billion dollars... they are in reality speaking about a stack of thousand dollar bills which is 500 feet tall.
Did you ever think that a Billion were SO much more than a million?
Harald Sakshaug
www.imfk.no
(Now also translated into english!)
Have you ever wondered how much a billion dollar really is?
We have a general idea what we can get for a million dollar... so the amount of money is familiar. But how much is really a billion?
Lets visualize one million dollars:
Stack one thousand dollar bills on top of each other in a stack till you get a stack of a million. That will be one thousand sheets, the equivalent of 2.4 inches high stack approximately.
Then lets visualize a billion dollars:
A billion dollars is one thousand stacks of a million dollars. And since we just learned that one million is 2.4 inches high, we then know that a billion should be 1000 times that. A billion dollar stack of thousand dollar bills is then 2400 inches tall...
2400 inches is approximately 200 feet.
So each time you read that budgets were broken with a couple of billion dollars... they are in reality speaking about a stack of thousand dollar bills which is 500 feet tall.
Did you ever think that a Billion were SO much more than a million?
Harald Sakshaug
www.imfk.no
(Now also translated into english!)
01-03-2010, 01:55 PM
#2
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Joined APC: May 2006
Position: C-172
Posts: 8,024
Harald, you old Viking, your website is not in English! 
I speak three languages, but Norwegian is not one of them although I did well enough while in Oslo to get around, find a bathroom, find a good hotel room, eat well, visit so many palaces and museums that they all started to look alike, visit cutesy little markets and stalls, and can you write a good run-on sentence like this in Norwegian? 
I speak three languages, but Norwegian is not one of them although I did well enough while in Oslo to get around, find a bathroom, find a good hotel room, eat well, visit so many palaces and museums that they all started to look alike, visit cutesy little markets and stalls, and can you write a good run-on sentence like this in Norwegian?
01-03-2010, 04:40 PM
#3
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Position: Jora UL, left seat
Posts: 18
Vikings rumble here, it is true
I have actually started translating the whole site, maybe the Bristish flag button is not visible enough on each page... hmmm...
The menus, top and side will not translate, the CMS system is to rigid for that... so I have tried to add a translation key here and there as an aid.
Harald Sakshaug
www.imfk.no
I have actually started translating the whole site, maybe the Bristish flag button is not visible enough on each page... hmmm...
The menus, top and side will not translate, the CMS system is to rigid for that... so I have tried to add a translation key here and there as an aid.
Harald Sakshaug
www.imfk.no
01-03-2010, 04:45 PM
#4
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Joined APC: Nov 2009
Position: Jora UL, left seat
Posts: 18
You almost got me there actually, been living in the UK for a number of years, but never heard the term, "run-on sentence" 
Wikipedia did clear that up tho, we have actually had 6 years of english language in schools here since the 50's, so litterally all norwegians speak english at some degree
Wikipedia did clear that up tho, we have actually had 6 years of english language in schools here since the 50's, so litterally all norwegians speak english at some degree
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