If you’re like me, you’ve received emails purporting to explain just how big a billion is with helpful illustrations about Christ living a billion minutes ago and other things happening a billion somethings ago. Depending on the source, there are often minor differences in the “other things.” You might have seen this in magazines or other publications as well. In most cases this leads up a point they’re trying to make about a billion something or another.
Accurate?
The illustrations are pretty close but not exact. At the time of this writing, a billion minutes (about 1901.25 years) ago was around 105 AD, seventy-some years after Christ was crucified. However, we can cut some slack here since it depends on where you round, and it’s more-or-less the time of Christ — plus, it makes a better point than “a billion minutes ago Pliny the Younger died.”