Fun Math for Elementary School Kids

How Big Is a Million?

A million is a big number.

How long do you think it would take to count to a million?

It would take a long time, and if you did it by yourself you'd get really bored really quickly.

So, you could take turns. Each student in your class could count to the next 100.

Samuel could count from 1 to 100, Grace could count from 101 to 200, Max could count from 201 to 300, and so on.

Even then it would take a long time and EVERYONE would get really bored!

So to make it more fun I got the computer to do the counting. Computers don't get bored and they don't need to sleep.
They can also count really fast. My computer is so fast that it can count to a million in less than one second! WOW!

But we want to use the computer to see how long it would take a person to count to a million.
So I had to get the computer to slow down and count at the same pace that people do.

Each time it counts from one number to the next number it takes a little break just long enough for a person doing the counting to catch up.
(It's like the old story of the race between the tortoise and the hare.)

When it takes a break the computer might have a nap, shoot some hoops, have a coffee or talk to its friends.
Then once the person catches up it counts to the next number. (Computers are very fast at drinking coffee, believe me!)

If you click on this link, you'll see when the computer started counting, and how far it has got so far. (The computer updates that webapge about once a minute.)

Instead we can play a guessing game while the computer is doing the counting. Look to see how far the computer has counted so far and how long it took to get there. Now can you work out how long it will take for the computer to count all the way to a million?