Million facts for kids
One million (1,000,000) or one thousand thousand, is the natural number after 999,999 and before 1,000,001. The name is derived from Italian, where mille was 1,000, and 1,000,000 became milione, "a large thousand".
In scientific notation, it is written as 1×106 or just 106. Physical quantities can also be expressed using the SI prefix mega-, when dealing with SI units. For example, 1 megawatt equals 1,000,000 watts.
The word "million" is common to the short scale and long scale numbering systems, unlike the larger numbers, which have different names in the two systems.
The million is sometimes used in the English language as a metaphor for a very large number, as in "Never in a million years" and "You're one in a million", or a hyperbole, as in "I've walked a million miles".
Il Milione is the title of Marco Polo's narration of his travel to China. The name is supposed to come from Polo's nickname after his tales of riches and multitudes.
Examples
- A millionaire is someone who owns at least one million units of currency.
- In computer science a megabyte is about a million bytes.
- In measurement there are a million millimeters in a kilometer. There are a million meters in a megameter. (A person who travels completely around earth's equator travels 40 megameters). Also, light travels a million kilometers in around 3 seconds (See light speed).
Images for kids
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One million black dots (pixels) – each tile with white or grey background contains 1000 dots (full image)
See also
In Spanish: Millón para niños
