What is a Billion ?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by SB21, Jan 18, 2020.


  1. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    Read this on another forum ,, thought I'd share it here . Not exactly sure when it was written .

    The next time you hear a politician use the word " Billion " in a casual manner , think about wether you want the " politicians " spending Your Tax money .
    A billion is a difficult number to comprehend .But one advertising company did a good job of putting that figure into perspective .

    A ) A billion SECONDS ago , it was 1959 .
    B ) A billion MINUTES ago , Jesus was alive .
    C ) A billion HOURS ago , our ancestors were living in the Stone age.
    D ) A billion DAYS ago , no one walked on the earth on 2 feet .
    E ) A billion dollars ago , was only 8 hours and 20 minutes , at the rate our government is spending it .
    While this thought is still in our brains ,, let's take a look at New Orleans ,,,
    It's amazing what you can learn with a little division .
    Louisiana Senator , Mary Landrieu ( D ) ,, was asking Congress for a 250 billion dollars to rebuild New Orleans.
    Interesting number .
    What does it mean ?

    A ) Well if you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans , ( every man , woman and child , )
    You each get $ 516,528 .
    B ) or ,, If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $ 1,329,787 .
    C ) or ,, If you are a family of four , your family gets $ 2,066,012 .

    Hello ,
    Washington , DC ,,
    Are all of your calculators broken ??

    Just putting a few things in perspective .
     
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  2. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    A man was taking it easy , lying on the grass one day , taking it easy and day dreaming while watching the clouds in the sky , when he decided to talk to God ,, " God " , he said , How long is a billion years ??
    God answered , " In my frame of reference , it's about a minute ".
    The man thought for a moment and then asked , " God , How much is a billion dollars " ??
    God answered , " Well , to Me , it's just a penny ".
    With this , the man thought for a moment longer . Finally , he asked , " God ,, can I have a penny " ??
    God answered ,,
    " In a minute ".
     
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  3. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    Basically you're on your own, but I'll be back in a couple of minutes to see what happens should you plan otherwise.
     
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  4. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    what does a billion look like?


    and then there is this
    [​IMG]
    and yet who is on the dock?
     
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  5. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    Oh dear, another old hoary bit of conservative bullsh!te to besmirch liberals/Democrats with. Lets apply a little skeptical fact checking to the OP pile of silly twaddle.

    Lets look at the memetic hook embedded in this propaganda piece just a little more critically, and skeptically....

    1. ....the request to the US Congress to appropriate US$250 billion dollars (for rebuilding New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina), was JOINTLY SPONSORED by a Democrat Senator (Mary Landrieu)[​IMG] AND a REPUBLICAN Senator, David Vitter [​IMG]David Vitter - Wikipedia. Curiously the author of the above partisan collection of inaccurate and misleading factoids fails to mention the alleged fiscal irresponsibility of the Republican legislator co sponsoring the "
    "Louisiana Katrina Reconstruction Act". A Bill which was introduced into Congress in 2005, but which was not enacted.
    Louisiana Katrina Reconstruction Act (2005 - S. 1765) . :rolleyes: Furthermore the copy and pasted article fails to mention the US$62 Billion appropriated by Congress and used by President G Dubya Bush's administration for post Katrina reconstruction for the GULF COAST, not simply New Orleans. US$62 BILLION! OMG what an astronomically huge amount of money! BILLIONS!:eek:

    2
    . Lets look at the 1 Billion seconds, minutes, hours, and days truth claims.....

    1 billion seconds is approximately 31.7 years, which perhaps indicative that the meme Meme | Meaning of Meme by Lexico has been circulating for some time, given that 31.7 years would put the present iteration of 1 billion seconds at 1984!, not 1959.....

    Even allowing the historicity of a legendary character such as Jesus of Nazareth, the "billion MINUTES" claimed between the present and Jesus's assumed life (1CE to 33-36CE), is out by some 70 years (or 36 million, 792 thousand minutes give or take some minutes to account for leap years and differences between the Julian and Gregorian calendars) This may simply be because this meme is quite old, and it reflects that the tally of minutes started in the 1930'sCE and not the present day, when the meme was posted to Survival Monkeys.

    This comparison is approximately correct, though it would more accurately reflect the Lower Paleolithic Era (In other words The Early or Old Stone age). It should be noted that the Lower Paleolithic Era spans a time scale between 3.3 million years ago, and 420,000 - 250,000 years ago Lower Paleolithic - Wikipedia, so it is not a particularly useful measure of a billion "HOURS")

    That claim is untrue and misleading.

    A billion days is approximately 2.74 million years. Bipedal hominids have existed on Earth at least as far back as 3.9 million to 2.9 million years ago. The Human Family's Earliest Ancestors | Science | Smithsonian Magazine Hominids walked the earth on 2 feet much longer than "a billion Days" ago.

    Good lord, SB21.....using Billions as a measure of government expenditure???? be bold and adventurous....TRILLIONS would be a more appropriate yard stick these days. A trillion may be calculated as 1,000 x 1 billion. It should be noted that American and British notions of what constitutes 1 billion are quite different. How many billions equal one trillion?

    This is also a misleading and mischievous analysis. The expenditure in post Katrina reconstruction by the US government was not distributed to residents as suggested in the OP meme. Undoubtedly there may have been some direct grants to disaster affected residents and property owners, but much of it was directed to Federal Government, State Government and, Local government authorities, and various NGO's. The implicit message in the meme suggests that families, property owners, and individual residents of New Orleans would have done very well financially out of the natural disaster that was Hurricane Katrina: that certainly was not the case in general.

    *************************************************************************************************************************************************

    Without a doubt, humans have quite some difficulty grasping the dimensions of incredibly large numbers, and incredibly small numbers when applied to the natural world. That is simply a matter of how technology has vastly outstripped human comprehension beyond the limitations of human evolution, and what intuitively makes sense to the humans trying to make sense of it all. However, that is not what the OP meme is about. The meme is about beating over the head, one culture wars adversary by a competing tribal faction....the meme cleverly exploits the confirmation biases of a conservative / Republican readership, rather than actually contributing anything meaningful, in explaining how most human beings find it difficult comprehending the magnitude of remarkably large, or incredibly small numbers.

    Far more interesting, and instructive articles on this phenomenon can be seen at the following linked websites....

    Numbers Guy

    Trillions and Quadrillions: A Short Guide to Absurdly Big Numbers

    For a comparison of large numbers with comprehensible yard sticks (without political bias)....try the following website on for size: From 1,000,000 to Graham's Number — Wait But Why
     
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  6. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    Well damn Chell ,,,,I'll get you to do my next school math assignment ..
    I can't wait to hear about your dislike of the fellow talking to God under the clouds ,,
    [beer]
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2020
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  7. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    That would not be well advised SB...I was hopeless at maths at school, though later found a liking for undergraduate level statistics, reasoning, and logic. I'm better at sussing out logical fallacies than working out algebraic equations and calculus.

    Goodness SB, post #2 in this thread What is a Billion ? is a mild theological joke, about an imaginary human, carrying on a fictional conversation with an imaginary deity. It is not something to be too ruffled about. :LOL:

    Having said that....Biblical inerrantists try to use that particular kind of apologetic dodge (particularly Young Earth Creationists), attempting to harmonise Biblical events in time relative with the geological and cosmic timescales derived from a scientific knowledge of the natural universe; That 'god days' and 'god years' according the "god time" scales recorded in the various ancient Judeo-Christian sacred scriptures, is supposedly a different metric to the literal days and years as measured by through observations of Earth's solar system, is an attempt to overcome those theological biblical inerrancy conundrums (howlers) which make no logical sense without some magical theological legerdemain. ;)

    Creationist Geologic Time Scale

    The unwarranted presupposition in the joke, is that the referenced deity actually exists. too many of the faithful, are prepared to make that concession easily without critically examining with a proportionate level of skepticism the evidence that supposedly justifies the belief as actually being true. :rolleyes:

    The burden of proof is on the claimant who posits that god exists, before any consideration need be given to the properties of 'god's time', regardless of who he/she/we/they are, or it is.
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2020
  8. Ura-Ki

    Ura-Ki Grampa Monkey

    He said Twaddle! ROTFLMAO!!
    Is that like outback redneck speak, To Waddle?
     
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  9. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus


    TWADDLE | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

    Etymology of the word 'twaddle' :
    NB: contemporary references to 'twaddle' and 'twattle' in urban dictionaries may vary considerably from academic linguistics.
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2020
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  10. Ura-Ki

    Ura-Ki Grampa Monkey

    Considering Engrish isn't my first language, some things get lost on me, especially when that Engrish isn't American Engrish! It's hard enough speaking/ understanding regular English as it is, toss in one of the Queen's editions and I'm confusticated!
     
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  11. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    No offence taken Ura-Ki: the word twaddle is a quaint archaism in colloquial usage. I find the English language fascinating, and the more I learn about it, the less I feel I have a grasp on it. There is always more to know and learn. :)
     
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  12. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    Read your response,, as usual,, you did not disappoint,,,just as expected. :)
     
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  13. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    I appreciated the humour in post #2, and found it genuinely funny.

    I have a number of friends who are theists, and they are generally compassionate, generous, caring, and ethical people who walk the walk of the best part of their faith confession; and I think no less of them for holding to the theological beliefs that underpin their character and actions, even though I may not share some of their religious beliefs. On the other hand, I have a number of theistic associates of the pharisaic kind whom I do not consider friends, who use their religious beliefs to bludgeon others who do not conform to those beliefs, and who justify harming others whom they believe that their 'god' dislikes: you know, the ones who say such platitudes as "hate the sin, but love the sinner" kind, who none the less, express their disgust of the sin by way of oppressing the sinner. I have no time for them or their abuse of their theology.

    A billion is a number difficult to conceptualise. Consider the following.

    The earth is populated with approximately:
    2.4 billion Christians
    1.9 billion Muslims
    1.2 billion secular / non religious / agnostic / atheist people
    1.15 billion Hindus
    .5 billion Buddhists
    Many live in harmony, but sadly, many do not. :(
     
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