In standard form, it is written as 1 × 109. The
metric prefixgiga indicates 1,000,000,000 times the base unit. Its symbol is G.
One billion years may be called an eon in astronomy or geology.
Previously in
British English (but not in
American English), the word "billion" referred exclusively to a million millions (1,000,000,000,000). However, this is not common anymore, and the word has been used to mean one thousand million (1,000,000,000) for several decades.[4]
The term milliard could also be used to refer to 1,000,000,000; whereas "milliard" is rarely used in English,[5] variations on this name often appear in
other languages.
The facts below give a sense of how large 1,000,000,000 (109) is in the context of time according to current scientific evidence:
Time
109 seconds (1 gigasecond) equal 11,574 days, 1 hour, 46 minutes and 40 seconds (approximately 31.7 years, or 31 years, 8 months, 8 days).
About 109 minutes ago, the
Roman Empire was flourishing and Christianity was emerging. (109 minutes is roughly 1,901 years.)
About 109 hours ago, modern human beings and their ancestors were living in the
Stone Age (more precisely, the
Middle Paleolithic). (109 hours is roughly 114,080 years.)
About 109 days ago, Australopithecus, an ape-like creature related to an ancestor of modern humans, roamed the African
savannas. (109 days is roughly 2.738 million years.)
About 109 months ago,
dinosaurs walked the Earth during the late
Cretaceous. (109 months is roughly 83.3 million years.)
A billion square inches could make a square about one half mile on a side.
A bolt of finely woven
1000-TC bed sheet linen with a billion thread crossings would have an area of 40 square metres (48 sq yd), comparable to the floor area of a motel unit.
A billion grains of table salt or granulated sugar would occupy a volume of about 2.5 cubic feet (0.071 m3).
A billion cubic inches would be a volume comparable to a large commercial building slightly larger than a typical supermarket.
Weight
Any object that weighs one billion kilograms (2.2×109 lb) would weigh about as much as 5,525 empty
Boeing 747-400s.
A cube of iron that weighs one billion pounds (450,000,000 kg) would be 38.62 metres (126.7 ft) on each side.
Products
As of July 2016,
Apple has sold one billion
iPhones.[7] This makes the iPhone one of the most successful product lines in history, surpassing the
PlayStation and the
Rubik's Cube.
As of January 2023,
Facebook has 2.963 billion users.[8]
Nature
A small mountain, slightly larger than
Stone Mountain in Georgia, United States, would weigh (have a mass of) a billion tons.
There are billions of worker ants in the largest ant colony in the world,[9] which covers almost 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of the Mediterranean coast.
A is a cube; B consists of 1000 cubes the size of cube A, C consists of 1000 cubes the size of cube B; and D consists of 1000 cubes the size of cube C. Thus there are 1 millionA-sized cubes in C; and 1,000,000,000 A-sized cubes in D.
4,467,033,943 – number of parallelogram polyominoes with 28 cells.[36]
4,486,784,401 = Leyland number
4,500,000,000 = Approximate age of the Earth in years
4,586,471,424 = 247
4,700,063,497 = smallest number n > 1 such that 2n is congruent to 3 (mod n)[50]
4,704,270,176 = 865
4,750,104,241 = 689212 = 16813 = 416
4,807,526,976 = 48th Fibonacci number.
4,984,209,207 = 875
5,000,000,000 to 5,999,999,999
5,159,780,352 = 17283 = 129 = 1,000,000,00012 AKA a great-great-great-gross (1,000,00012 great-grosses or 100012 great-great-grosses)
5,277,319,168 = 885
5,345,531,935 = number of centered hydrocarbons with 31 carbon atoms[39]
5,354,228,880 = superior highly composite number, smallest number divisible by the numbers from 1 to 24 (there is no smaller number divisible by the numbers from 1 to 23 since any number divisible by 3 and 8 must also be divisible by 24)
In standard form, it is written as 1 × 109. The
metric prefixgiga indicates 1,000,000,000 times the base unit. Its symbol is G.
One billion years may be called an eon in astronomy or geology.
Previously in
British English (but not in
American English), the word "billion" referred exclusively to a million millions (1,000,000,000,000). However, this is not common anymore, and the word has been used to mean one thousand million (1,000,000,000) for several decades.[4]
The term milliard could also be used to refer to 1,000,000,000; whereas "milliard" is rarely used in English,[5] variations on this name often appear in
other languages.
The facts below give a sense of how large 1,000,000,000 (109) is in the context of time according to current scientific evidence:
Time
109 seconds (1 gigasecond) equal 11,574 days, 1 hour, 46 minutes and 40 seconds (approximately 31.7 years, or 31 years, 8 months, 8 days).
About 109 minutes ago, the
Roman Empire was flourishing and Christianity was emerging. (109 minutes is roughly 1,901 years.)
About 109 hours ago, modern human beings and their ancestors were living in the
Stone Age (more precisely, the
Middle Paleolithic). (109 hours is roughly 114,080 years.)
About 109 days ago, Australopithecus, an ape-like creature related to an ancestor of modern humans, roamed the African
savannas. (109 days is roughly 2.738 million years.)
About 109 months ago,
dinosaurs walked the Earth during the late
Cretaceous. (109 months is roughly 83.3 million years.)
A billion square inches could make a square about one half mile on a side.
A bolt of finely woven
1000-TC bed sheet linen with a billion thread crossings would have an area of 40 square metres (48 sq yd), comparable to the floor area of a motel unit.
A billion grains of table salt or granulated sugar would occupy a volume of about 2.5 cubic feet (0.071 m3).
A billion cubic inches would be a volume comparable to a large commercial building slightly larger than a typical supermarket.
Weight
Any object that weighs one billion kilograms (2.2×109 lb) would weigh about as much as 5,525 empty
Boeing 747-400s.
A cube of iron that weighs one billion pounds (450,000,000 kg) would be 38.62 metres (126.7 ft) on each side.
Products
As of July 2016,
Apple has sold one billion
iPhones.[7] This makes the iPhone one of the most successful product lines in history, surpassing the
PlayStation and the
Rubik's Cube.
As of January 2023,
Facebook has 2.963 billion users.[8]
Nature
A small mountain, slightly larger than
Stone Mountain in Georgia, United States, would weigh (have a mass of) a billion tons.
There are billions of worker ants in the largest ant colony in the world,[9] which covers almost 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of the Mediterranean coast.
A is a cube; B consists of 1000 cubes the size of cube A, C consists of 1000 cubes the size of cube B; and D consists of 1000 cubes the size of cube C. Thus there are 1 millionA-sized cubes in C; and 1,000,000,000 A-sized cubes in D.
4,467,033,943 – number of parallelogram polyominoes with 28 cells.[36]
4,486,784,401 = Leyland number
4,500,000,000 = Approximate age of the Earth in years
4,586,471,424 = 247
4,700,063,497 = smallest number n > 1 such that 2n is congruent to 3 (mod n)[50]
4,704,270,176 = 865
4,750,104,241 = 689212 = 16813 = 416
4,807,526,976 = 48th Fibonacci number.
4,984,209,207 = 875
5,000,000,000 to 5,999,999,999
5,159,780,352 = 17283 = 129 = 1,000,000,00012 AKA a great-great-great-gross (1,000,00012 great-grosses or 100012 great-great-grosses)
5,277,319,168 = 885
5,345,531,935 = number of centered hydrocarbons with 31 carbon atoms[39]
5,354,228,880 = superior highly composite number, smallest number divisible by the numbers from 1 to 24 (there is no smaller number divisible by the numbers from 1 to 23 since any number divisible by 3 and 8 must also be divisible by 24)