One Mississippi ( lemmy.ml )

cosmicrookie , 7 months ago

I think that this is a pretty bad and deceptive way of demonstrating the size comparison. Mainly because only 60 sec go into 1 minute, not 100. Only 60 min go into 1 hour not 100. Only 24 to a day etc.

Still though I agree thet people have a hard time grasoingbthe difference between millions and billions

vithigar , 7 months ago

Why do the ratios of conversion matter at all? The point is that all three of 1 second, 11 days, and 31.5 years are human comprehensible quantities. You can look at those values and actually understand the difference without having to do mental conversions.

cosmicrookie , 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago)

Well, because you can see at the result of this meme, that the result is extremely misleading. It is correct but not representative of how much more one billion is compared to a million.

1bill is just 1000 times more than 1mil. The example here makes it look like a lot more.

Instead you could compare 1mil kilograms = 22 Titanic’s where 1bill kilograms = 22000 Titanics. But that is too straight forward and people would not react the same way as they do when you use time instead of a ratio that is representative of the numbers you are trying to compare

vithigar , 7 months ago

What? It is exactly representative. The values are correct and comprehensible. The fact that the numeric orders of magnitude of the units involved don’t progress uniformly is irrelevant. The point is that they are all values that are relatable within normal human experience.

1 kilogram, 22 Titanics, and 22000 Titanics doesn’t help at all. There is no number of Titanics that is is a human relatable quantity.