Million facts for kids

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A million is the number 1,000,000. It comes right after 999,999 and just before 1,000,001. Think of it as one thousand thousands! The word "million" comes from Italian. In Italian, mille means 1,000. So, 1,000,000 became milione, which means "a big thousand."

In science, we often write very large numbers using a shortcut called scientific notation. A million can be written as 1×10⁶ or simply 10⁶. This means 1 followed by six zeros.

When we talk about measurements, we use special prefixes. The SI prefix for a million is "mega-". For example, 1 megawatt is the same as 1,000,000 watts. This helps us talk about very large amounts of power.

The word "million" is special because it means the same thing in different numbering systems around the world. For even bigger numbers, the names can change, but a million is always a million!

People often use "million" to mean a very, very large number, even if it's not exactly 1,000,000. For example, if someone says, "Never in a million years," they mean "never ever." Or, "You're one in a million" means you are very special and unique. Sometimes, it's used to exaggerate, like saying, "I've walked a million miles" after a long walk.

Did you know that "Il Milione" is the name of a famous book? It's about the travels of Marco Polo to China. People think Marco Polo got the nickname "Milione" because he told amazing stories about the huge riches and many people he saw on his journeys.

What a Million Looks Like

Money and Computers

• A millionaire is a person who owns at least one million units of money. This could be one million dollars, euros, or any other currency.
• In computer science, a megabyte is a unit of digital information. It's about a million bytes. A byte is a small piece of computer data. So, a megabyte holds a lot of information!

Distances and Speed

• In measurement, there are a million millimeters in a kilometer. A millimeter is tiny, and a kilometer is a long distance.
• There are also a million meters in a megameter. To give you an idea, if you traveled all the way around Earth's equator, you would go about 40 megameters!
• Light travels incredibly fast. It can go a million kilometers in only about 3 seconds! That's how fast the speed of light is.

Images for kids

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  This image shows one million black dots (pixels). Each small square with a white or grey background has 1,000 dots.

See also

In Spanish: Millón para niños