How much is a billion? Explained simply & clearly

Imagining how much a billion is is difficult for many people. Because huge numbers challenge our brain

How to imagine how much a billion is

How much a billion is can be explained using various examples. This makes it possible to visualize the huge number for the human brain. This can be particularly helpful when, for example, the news is again talking about sums of money in the billions.

• A billion is a 1 with nine zeros. Also: 1.000.000.000.

• A billion is a thousand times a million. So: 1,000 x 1,000,000.

• To better visualize the difference between a million and a billion, the example with seconds can help. One million seconds is 11 days. One billion seconds, on the other hand, is 31.7 years

• If you were to stack a billion sheets of paper neatly on top of each other, this tower would be 297,000 kilometers high. With this distance, you could almost reach the moon from the earth.