A Million and a Billion Are Not Neighbors

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Name Date
DIRECTIONS: A million and a billion sound close. Turn each into days (86,400 seconds in a day), then into a unit that makes sense.
#How many seconds?Divide by 86,400 to get daysNow say it in a unit that makes sense
1.a thousand seconds
2.a million seconds
3.a billion seconds
Say the last one in years.
  1. Write the three answers as a sentence: "A thousand seconds is ___, a million is ___, and a billion is ___."

Say That Again Slowly

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DIRECTIONS: Check your answers, then keep going.
A million seconds is 11.6 days. A billion seconds is 31.7 years.
  1. How many times bigger than a million is a billion? (Not a guess — divide.)
    Show your work
  2. The Earth is 4,540 million years old. Write that in billions of years.
  3. A newspaper says a project will cost "millions, maybe even billions". Explain why that phrase is nearly meaningless.

The Same Trick on a Ruler

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DIRECTIONS: Same trick with a ruler: one millimeter is one year.
#If a millimeter is one year, then...WorkingHow far
8.a thousand years is1,000 mm
9.a million years is1,000,000 mm
10.a billion years is1,000,000,000 mm
Give the last two in kilometers. There are a million millimeters in a kilometer.
  1. A million years is about the length of a long walk. A billion years is about the distance to _______. Fill it in and say what that tells you.