1 million versus 1 billion

[Seeker]

It's one of those days when I'm drifting through the web with no place to go. Inevitably I end up on reddit.
Someone helpfully (?) indicated the difference between 1 million and 1 billion since the numbers can be hard to visualise.
1 million seconds is approximately 11.5 days
1 billion seconds is approximately 31.5 years

In my head, 1 billion was a bit more than 1 million...yes, I know the numbers but a billionaire seemed just a bit richer than a millionaire. There are 2200 billionaires on the planet. Mind blown.

[littleoldman2]

To me a billion is a million times a million. But to Americans and all our news programmes, papers ect it a 1000 million.

[Bibio]

now lets look at something very scary

£1,800,000,000,000 in seconds to repay the national debt not including interest =
@ £1 a second = £86,400 a day, 47,564.7 years
@ £10 a second = £864,000 a day, 4756.47 years
@ £100 a second = £8,640,000 a day, 475.647 years

now the interest alone =
@ 1/4% the interest on 1.8 trillion is 4,500,000,000 a year
our monthly repayments are £375,000,000

all assuming my calculations are correct.

every single person of the 66.57 million people in the UK has a theoretical debt of £27,000 each

[Heorot]

Ooh! a fellow pedant. I suspect Seeker is old like me and had a proper education.

[Seeker]

I suspect Seeker is old
guilty.


and had a proper education
I wouldn't go that far.


I can overlook it's/its and their/there but ect irritates me.

On the pedantry subject - I used to be punished at school for pronouncing the letter "H" as haitch instead of aitch. Apparently haitch is now widely accepted but it makes me cringe.

[timwilky]

I upset a mate who was taking the P out of my pronunciation of garage. As in garaarge, where he says it is garige.


His comment was, "you wouldn't call a fridge a frage". "No I would call it a refrigerator", at which point he called me a rude name and stormed out of the pub. There is nothing wrong with a regional accent, but I hate poor pronunciation. Worst locally is the use of the word buzz when they refer to a bus.

[Adam Ef]

I upset a mate...
There is nothing wrong with a regional accent, but I hate poor pronunciation. Worst locally is the use of the word buzz when they refer to a bus.


Ha. Get down to Bristol, you'll love it... or Brizzle as I should say.

[SV650rules]

Its like the age old feud on BBC how to pronounce Shrewsbury, some say Shrowsbury, I just say 'well how do you pronounce Shrew ( the furry little mammal with the long nose) is it a Shrow ? Some Shruesbury ( more like it) and the locals just say Shoesbry.

It is like scon or scone, if you say scon you should also stay ston instead of stone, no wonder English language is so hard to foreigners to grasp, although most do speak it better than wot we do.

[shiftin_gear98]

Innit

[Bibio]

my irritation is people pronouncing an R where there are none. draRwing or bRought

[Talking Heads]

The worst one is should of.

[Talking Heads]

Interesting factoid for Bibio, people of Scotland's liability for UK national debt.... £0.00p

[Adam Ef]

The English language is a strange and illogical thing a lot of the time.
Just ask Sean Bean.

[andrewsmith]

Interesting factoid for Bibio, people of Scotland's liability for UK national debt.... £0.00pAnd have the largest numbers of persons in the forces.

Sent from my PRA-LX1 using Tapatalk

[littleoldman2]

Interesting factoid for Bibio, people of Scotland's liability for UK national debt.... £0.00p

Source?

[Talking Heads]

Source?


UK Treasury



https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25712350

[littleoldman2]

Ah I see, so Scotland is the same as West Sussex and every other bit:p

[Talking Heads]

Ah no, very different, Scotland is a country, West Sussex is a retirement home.

[ophic]

On the pedantry subject - I used to be punished at school for pronouncing the letter "H" as haitch instead of aitch. Apparently haitch is now widely accepted but it makes me cringe.
I love you.

[Luckypants]

my irritation is people pronouncing an R where there are none. draRwing or bRoughtMine too, they need to understand brought and bought are very different words!

[TamSV]

Mine too, they need to understand brought and bought are very different words!


Someone once told me they went to Ikea and brought a chest of draws. WTF?

[Bibio]

not as bad as someone saying i was learned something new today.

see you at the back of four o'clock... no just tell me what fukin time you will be there.

suppose i cant complain too much being scottish.. lol. dont know if its true but i was told that the best queens english (apart from the queen) was spoken in some remote place or island in scotland.

[Spanner Man]

we adopted 1000 million as a billion in 1975 and it's etc. for et cetera not ect, other than that, you're accurate ;)




Good morning all.




We've adopted a lot of things over the years, to comply with the rest of the world.



If you were 6 foot tall before 1963, you would be 10.2 millionths of an inch taller after 1963, because that's when we standardised the old imperial inch to be exactly 25.4 mm......How's that for a piece of useless piffle? :D



Oh, & I still think of a billion as a million times a million, but I'm old too! :(




Cheers.

[timwilky]

You damn colonials inventing your own units of measure!
Many years ago I worked for a truck manufacturer and had to perform "Type Approval" testing.


One of these being rollover testing of fuel tanks, where we would need to brim it with diesel, roll the tank and measure the fuel loss over time. yes boring and I used to give it juniors, but still had to write the report.


It was a time when we would submit both SI and imperial units. No problem I had a new fancy calculator with built in conversions. Imagine my surprise when my report was rejected.


Doh, the fancy calculator built by those clever Japanese chaps with the Litre<->Gallon functions only went and used those dodgy US gallons and not a proper Imperial one. Back to looking up the conversion factor in my book of useless information and using the fancy calculator as a calculator.

[Spanner Man]

You damn colonials inventing your own units of measure!



Doh, the fancy calculator built by those clever Japanese chaps with the Litre<->Gallon functions only went and used those dodgy US gallons and not a proper Imperial one. Back to looking up the conversion factor in my book of useless information and using the fancy calculator as a calculator.

Those bloody colonials really pushed it when they started inventing their own screw thread forms!.....Joseph Whitworth must be turning in his grave!



Look up! You mean you didn't remember that 1 imperial gallon equals 4.54609 litres? BAH! :D

[Red ones]

Joseph Whitworth must be turning in his grave!



This surely must win the quote of the year award. (Assuming he is only turning at a 55° angle!)

[Spanner Man]

This surely must win the quote of the year award. (Assuming he is only turning at a 55° angle!)




Well spotted fellow well educated chap! :D

[ophic]

You damn colonials inventing your own units of measure!
Not sure they did. The most common form of British unit deviations are us redefining the standard after whatever colony split off. Therefore they're actually just using an archaic standard. Happens a lot in languages too.

[johnnyrod]

suppose i cant complain too much being scottish.. lol. dont know if its true but i was told that the best queens english (apart from the queen) was spoken in some remote place or island in scotland.

I heard that, thought it was Inverness

[SV650rules]

This surely must win the quote of the year award. (Assuming he is only turning at a 55° angle!)


https://engineering.stackexchange.com/questions/18549/why-are-whitworth-threads-angled-at-55