[ExI] Eternity: Our Next Billion Years, by Michael Hanlon

[BillK]

On 5/23/09, Damien Broderick wrote:
> I haven't seen this book yet. It sounds like a version of my YEAR MILLION
> anthology,*** and that's good--we need more books taking the very long view.
>
>  <http://www.sfsite.com/05b/et296.htm>
>
>  ***I suppose any sequel I compile will now have to be titled YEAR
> or YEAR ZILLION rather than YEAR BILLION. :)
>


Well, Obama and the Fed have now used billions and trillions so much
that people no longer appreciate just how big these numbers are.

I'm sure I read somewhere that a poll found that people thought a
billion was just a big million and a trillion a bit more than that.

<http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=05&year=2009&base_name=big_numbers_1>

The Econ4u folks are dedicated to education Americans about all
matters financial. To dramatize the importance of their mission, they
put a poll into the field asking people how many millions are in a
trillion. The results:

    Q: How many times larger is a trillion than a million? Would you say…

    One Thousand Times- 18%
    Ten Thousand Times- 12%
    One Hundred Thousand Times- 21%
    One Million Times- 21%
    Ten Million Times- 17%
    Don’t Know- 12%


The correct answer is a million millions are in a trillion. But 79
percent of Americans got that wrong. And almost everyone got it wrong
downward.

As one of the comments says 'The answers look a lot like random guessing'.


BillK