Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1880-03-12
What a Billion Is.

. Y
II would he curious to know how many
Of your readers have brought fully home to
their inner consciousness the real aignlf-
eanee Of that little word "bilion," which we
have seen Of late 20 glibly used In your col
umns Phere are, no doubt. many thousands
who cannot appreciate its true worth even
when reduced. TO fragments for more easy
assimilation. arithmetical simbol is sim
pie and without much pretension there are
no Mrgc figures just a modest /, followed
by nine ciphefs and that Is all.
Let US briefly take a glanceat Il as alnicss.
IRE of time, distance and weight. Asa lieas-
ure Of time, would take one second III tho.
unit, and carry myself III thought through
the lapse of ages back to the lrst day Of the.
year OF our era, remembering Tint In all
those years we have 1865 days, and ID every
dry just $4,000 stnonds of time Hence in,
futurning M.tAeuen Rack again % this year
OF grace 1890, one might have sdpposel thai
a billion Of seconds had long since elapsed,
but this is not so. We have not passed the
l-16 of that number in all those long event
full years, for it takes just 81 ,6s7 years, II
days, 90 hours, As minutes and seconds to
constitute billion of seconds of time
II is no easy matter to bring under the cog
nizance of the human eye billion objects of
any kind. Let us try in imagination to ar
range this number for inspection, and for this
purpose would select n sovereign as ia
mlliar object Let rs put one on the ground
and pile upon IL rs many as will reach
twenty feet In height; then let us place num-
bers of similar columns in close contact
forming II straight line, and making sort
of wall twenty feet high, showing only the
thin edges of the coin Imagine two such
walls running parallel to each other aud
forming, as il were, n long street We must
then keep on extending these walls for miles,
and still we shall be far short of the re-
quircd number. And it Is not until we have
extended our imaginary street a distance of
2,3S6l miles that we have presented for in
spection our one billion Of coins.
For measure Of height let us take much
smaller unit as our measuring rod. The thin
sheets of paper on which these lines are
printed, IL laid out flat and firmly pressed
together rs in u well bound book, would
represent II measure Of 1888 OF an inch In
thickness. Let us SEQ how high dense pile
formed by abiIlon Of these thin paper leaves
would reach. Wcmust, in Imagination, pile
them vertically upward, by degrees reach
ing 10 the height Of our tallcst spires; and
passing these, the pile must go higher, top
ping the Alps and the Andes and the high
eat peak Of the llimalayas, and shooting up
from thence, through the lleecy clouds, pass
beyond the confines of our altenuated atmos.
phcrc and leap up into the blue ether with
which the universe is filled, standing proudly
up far beyond the reach of all terrestrial
things, still pile on your thousands and mil
lions of thin leaves, for we are only begin.
ming TO rear the mighty mass.
Add millions ON millions Of sheets and
lhousanl3 OF mites nli these, and Sill ia,
nHnb - wi.I tack IT, Ia t1tlnh. i.id,
Ptl-" to OK 1t iin'hrh pow.l"lp mt.,
book l~"r' Il So h,w t..'-.' ! r.t,r,t.l
ltit % p.Pr how nlny "a ~ ~ ~ f.,.,
m"r' with 1l a pan, an hr, turn uif
cy| ~ itnaSntlinn upward To- QUO mighIy
coilmn OF accumulated sheets. II now con
tains is appointed number, and our 1000
100000 sheets Of the Times, superimposed
upon each other and pressed into compact
mass has reached an altitude Of 1888
miles
Those who have taken the trouble to fol-
low me thus far, will, | think agree with
me that l,0O0,00Oy0OO is fearful thing, and
that few can appreciate its real value As
for trilIions and quadrilions, they are simply
words, wholly incapable Of adequately i'm
pressing themselves ON the human intellect.
- IOH,i0n Times.