Big numbers are everywhere when talking about population. So it’s imperative that we’re able to understand a million, and a billion, and the difference between the two.
In this blog, we want to take a deep dive into these two common big numbers – one million and one billion. We’ll use silly, kid-friendly scenarios to see how significantly different a million and a billion really are and give you lots of great examples that are sure to have your student’s heads spinning!
Big Mistakes in Mixing up Big Numbers
Conflating a million of something with a billion of the same thing could result in some less-than-ideal situations.
Imagine you are a button manufacturer and get an order for an assortment of 1 million buttons. Somewhere along the way, the workshop got confused and made 1 billion buttons instead. Now, instead of being able to ship all the buttons in a light-duty pickup truck like a Chevy Colorado…
…it will take 6.25 semi-trailer trucks in order to ship all 1 billion buttons.
Another example is blades of grass on a football field. A football field with turf grass has just over 1 billion blades of grass from endzone to endzone. On the other hand, a million blades of grass only makes up about 5 square meters – the size of a small front yard. If numbers were to get mixed up and only 1 million blades of grass were ordered to be planted on a football field, we’d go from having players running on a field like this:
to having them play on a field with grass like this:
Imagine how muddy that would be in the rain!
Making it “Big” in Showbiz
When listening to your favorite song, you might think “Hmm, I wonder if my friends know this song…?” The likelihood of that will depend on a variety of things, one of which being how popular that song is. One way to determine that would be to look at how many streams the song has on the music streaming platform, Spotify.
If your favorite song is “we can’t be friends” by Ariana Granda, the chances that your friends have heard the song are relatively high. As of December 2024, “we can’t be friends” has been streamed 1.058 billion times on Spotify. So how many is that? Well, if the 3 minute and 48 second song were to be played that many times consecutively, it would be playing for over 7,649 years straight. That would put us in the year 9673 – that’s a long ways away!
Alternatively, if your favorite song is “Birthday Baby” by Joe P, the likelihood someone else may have heard it is significantly lower. As of December 2024, “Birthday Baby” has been streamed 1.032 million times. If the song were to be played for that many streams consecutively, the 3 minute and 50 second song would be playing for about 7.5 years. That would only put us in the year 2031, just a few birthdays away!
On the bright side, a concert for an artist like Joe P would likely happen in a venue like this:
While an Ariana Granda concert would likely happen in a venue more like this:
You’ll probably be able to see Joe P. better up on stage!
How Many Happy Meals
One of the most common ways numbers in the millions and billions are brought up is when we are discussing money. If you are an individual that happens to have a spare million or billion dollars, you might be able to use it to help the people around you.
Let’s say you have 1 million dollars and you are looking to buy a hamburger Happy Meal from McDonalds for as many people as you can. With the hamburger Happy Meal price currently being $6.32 (before tax), you would be able to buy about 158,227 people a meal (based on the 2024 McDonald’s menu prices). That’s enough to feed the population of Paterson, NJ (as of 2023).
But, if you have 1 billion dollars you could now feed 158,227,848 people, which is more than enough to feed the entire population of Russia (as of 2023).
Sometimes, people think about millionaires and billionaires in the same category as one another. When in reality, having a billion dollars is significantly more money than having a million dollars, putting billionaires in a pretty exclusive club. And you can buy way more McDonald’s happy meals.
Many Ways to Understand Large Numbers
In our recent blogs, Visualizing Large Numbers and Understanding Large Numbers, we explored strategies like using number lines, art, and guessing jars, to help make large numbers more accessible for students. We also talked about how putting massive numbers into meaningful context can be a powerful and effective way to understand their true scale.
Thinking about big numbers can be a challenge, but is an important one to take on. It could be the difference between running on a nice green field or slipping and sliding during a rainy football game.
Image credits: Chevy Colorado (RL GNZLZ from Chile, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons); Semi-trailer (Ewkada, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons); Field turf (Gustamons, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons); Sparse grass (Laval University, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons); Small concert venue (WanderingTrad, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons); Stadium concert venue (Taylor Swift/Charli XCX – Reputation Tour by Ronald Woan is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0); Paterson, NJ (Wugapodes, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons); Russia (Kelvinc, based on Image:LocationUSA.svg by User:Rei-artur, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
