While thinking about the price of walls and such, I was reminded that our names for big numbers are a bit misleading. We talk about billions and trillions as though a billion was two of something and a trillion was three of something.

Here’s a comparison, in seconds, of various big numbers:

1 thousand seconds = 16.7 minutes 1 million seconds = 115.7 days 1 billion seconds = 31.7 years 1 trillion seconds = 31,709.8 years (This has been a numeracy public service announcement.)