WHAT IS A BILLION

Nelson Evening Mail, 16 May 1917, Page 6

WHAT IS A BILLION

In the days of millions or men in the field for one" nation or another, and for- , tunes at everv hand counting over a j million, it is no longer startling to hear people speak of billions of this or that when referring to National Debts. One understands readily that a billion is a thousand millions, and that a million is a thousand thousands; but if it is ap- ( plied to objects it seems to pass almost beyond imagination. If, however, the question is looked into carefully, it will be seen that since the birth of Christ there has been hut a few more than a billion of minutes ! Now a minute is such a trifling measure of time and (sav) a florin is such a small sum: vet since the beginning of the Christian era'there have been but few more than a billion minutes. | Pictures have often been drawn ot the wealthiest- man in the world counting lus hoard, but he never counted it a florin , at a time. If he had the entire sum before him, and could handle it as rapidly as his watch ticks—about two florins to the second—it would take him, working night and day, six years and lour months to complete his task. The speediest element with which the mind is acquainted is light, for we are not, it is claimed, yet certain of the speed of electricity. Light travels approximately at the"rate of 186,000 miles a second, which, so far as earthly distances are concerned, is practically instantaneous. Yet, if a searchlight sufficiently powerful to cast its rays a billion "miles into space were turned on from the earth it would not light up its objective for more than two months afterwards. If our sole illumination were a snn a billion miles away and the fare were suddenly extinguished we would see that snn for 62 days afterward, that leneth of time being required for the rush to the earth of the rays that were «mt forth before its death. A striking point is made by the statiswhen he observes that we all comprehend the speed of the ordinary rifle bullet; that is, about half a mile a second. Now, he supposes, if a rifle a billion miles away were shot at a man (crranting that a bullet would carry the distance)', the intended victim and all his descendants for 24 generations would have plentv of time to pack up their household goods and move to the other side of the world to dodge the bullet, for it would not arrive for 800 years. \ssuming the question ot a railway train on a straight track, we are told: If *a railway train, proceeding at the rate of a mile'a minute, had been, at the dawn of the Christian era started around the earth on a .straight track its object being to run 1,000,000,UUU miles without stop, it would have been necesjsarv for that train to circle the earth 40,000 times, and it would not have come to the end of its journey until nearly New Year's Eve, 1623—16 centuries* after Christ was born. During its frantic flight it would have seen the Saviour live and die : Home rise, flourish and decay: Britain discovered and vanquished bv the Roman legions, and Xondon and Paris built. It would have proceeded on its journey throughout the dark ages. It would have witnessed die birth: of Columbus, the discovery of ..America; and have a couple of hundred years yet to continue. : . In the ordinary box of matches there -are 50 sticks. If a consignment of 1,000.000.000 were ordered from the manufacturer, the boxes in which thev were packed would make a pile of 168 "miles in height. Packed in freight cars, thev would fill 12 to the roofs, io box them alone, not to take into consideration the labour of making and labelling the boxes.. 1.000 girls would be iept busy a month, working in eighthour shifts. On the entire surface of the earth there are but a comparatively few more than 1,000,000,000 human beings. Yet assures us that for untold cges 'they have been increasing with steady regularity.