Supposing you could count at the rate of 200 a minute; then, in one hour, you could count 12,000—if you were not interrupted. Well, 12,000 an hour would be 288,000 a day; and a year, or 365 days, would produce 105,120,000. But this would not allow you a single moment for sleep, or for any other business whatever. If Adam at the beginning of his existence, had begun to count, had continued to count, and were counting still, he would not even now, according to the usually supposed age of man, have counted nearly enough. To count a billion, he would require 9,512 years, 342 days, 5 hours and 20 minutes, according to the above reckoning. But suppose we were to allow the poor counter twelve hours daily for rest, eating and sleeping, he would need 19,025 years, 319 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes to count one billion.
A comparison—
One million seconds = less than 12 days
" billion " = over 31,000 years
A GOOD CATCH.
[1.]—Ask a person to write, in figures, eleven thousand, eleven hundred and eleven. This often proves very amusing, few being able to write it correctly at first.
[2.]—If the eighth of £1 be 3s, what will the fifth of a £5 note be?