Let’s have some fun with big numbers.
It is surprising how often children – and adults! – find it difficult to grasp the true size of things. We can say “a million” very easily, but picturing what a million actually means is much harder.
Start with 1,000 Dots
Look at the image with your children and ask them to guess how many dots there are.
Now imagine being given £1 for every dot on the page. That would be a lot of pocket money, wouldn’t it? But would it make them a millionaire?
No, it wouldn’t.
What about ten times that amount? That would buy a huge number of snacks, sweets and toys. But would they be a millionaire then?
Still no.
So let’s go really, really big. Imagine that many dots 100 times over. Surely now they would be a millionaire?
No again.
In fact, to be a millionaire, they would need that many dots 1,000 times over. There are 1,000 dots in the square, and a million is a thousand thousands.
For most children, a million is almost impossible to imagine. Maybe at this stage it is best not to tell them that there are around 3,000 billionaires in the world, each with at least one thousand times a million pounds!
Now Picture 20,000 Coaches
Let’s take a step back and think about something children can picture more easily – school coaches.
A typical school coach holds about 50 people when every seat is taken.
To imagine 1,000 people, we need to picture 20 full coaches, lined up nose to tail.
To imagine 100,000 people, we need 2,000 full coaches.
And to imagine 1,000,000 people, we need 20,000 full coaches.
That is a very, very long line of coaches.
To reinforce just how large a million is, imagine walking past all those people one by one. Even if you did not stop for a single second – day or night – it would take more than two days to walk past them all.
Other Ways to Picture a Million
Need a few more ways to imagine a million? Try these.
A million people would fill Wembley Stadium more than 11 times over.
A million grains of sugar is roughly the number you might find in a bag of sugar, depending on the size of the grains.
A million sheets of paper stacked on top of one another would be about as high as a 30-storey building.
A million words is about the length of 10 good-sized novels.
A million seconds is more than 11 days.
A Small Word for a Huge Number
So the next time someone mentions that small, two-syllable word – million – ask your children to pause and imagine what it really means.
At some stage in the future, I will write about my thoughts on the universe. When we get to that subject, numbers become REALLY interesting.
Happy counting!