# Is it just me or do you want to strangle people who use the phrase"Hundreds of billions of yearsold" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 26, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-do-you-want-to-strangle-people-who-use-the-phrase-hundreds-of-billions-of-yearsold/792157 "2017-07-26T14:02:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-do-you-want-to-strangle-people-who-use-the-phrase-hundreds-of-billions-of-yearsold/792157/21 "2017-07-26T23:42:48Z")
> [@jonpluc](#): > > i hear this or a similar variant in conversations in passing all the time when someone wants to say that something happened a long time ago and they casually state a number that is exponentially years before the Big Bang. Given that we’re prone to exaggeration and hyperbole, it doesn’t bother me that such exaggeration or hyperbole indicates a period of time before the Big Bang. Such outrage _literally_ causes my head to explode in a Big Bang like manner. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-do-you-want-to-strangle-people-who-use-the-phrase-hundreds-of-billions-of-yearsold/792157/22 "2017-07-26T23:44:06Z")
> [@BobBitchin](#): > > I can’t say I want to strangle them, I just classify them as stupid children, who shouldn’t be listened to. > > Like people that say “I’m a million percent sure” or “irregardless”😃 I could care less 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-do-you-want-to-strangle-people-who-use-the-phrase-hundreds-of-billions-of-yearsold/792157/23 "2017-07-27T01:20:13Z")
Do one hundred billion degrees below zero F and one hundred billion degrees below zero C converge on a really big chart? ---
**Author:** ![Pippers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b5a626/32.png) [@Pippers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pippers)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-do-you-want-to-strangle-people-who-use-the-phrase-hundreds-of-billions-of-yearsold/792157/24 "2017-07-27T01:36:09Z")
People have different sayings and sometimes they put their own spin on an old adage. Nothing to knot your knickers over. Just smile and kick on. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-do-you-want-to-strangle-people-who-use-the-phrase-hundreds-of-billions-of-yearsold/792157/25 "2017-07-27T01:58:07Z")
Don’t get me started on that song from about seven years ago, “Written in the Stars,” where the singer sings, “written in the stars, a million miles away…” ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-do-you-want-to-strangle-people-who-use-the-phrase-hundreds-of-billions-of-yearsold/792157/26 "2017-07-27T02:16:34Z")
To avoid strangulation, I routinely measure great distance and unfathomable amounts of time in kajillions. Have not been strangled yet. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-do-you-want-to-strangle-people-who-use-the-phrase-hundreds-of-billions-of-yearsold/792157/27 "2017-07-27T02:23:08Z")
I was watching a stupid little local PBS show just the other day, and these three turds out “hiking” about 100 yards off the road, and the “expert” says, _“These rock formations are trillions of years old!”_ No. No, they’re not. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-do-you-want-to-strangle-people-who-use-the-phrase-hundreds-of-billions-of-yearsold/792157/28 "2017-07-27T02:30:29Z")
If we know that the big bang happened 13.7 baziillion years ago or so, why can’t we see that little peep hole and look back into it and see wazzup? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-do-you-want-to-strangle-people-who-use-the-phrase-hundreds-of-billions-of-yearsold/792157/29 "2017-07-27T02:43:52Z")
**Bricker** , while it’s true that there’s no known upper bound on the Universe’s size, and that it therefore might well be larger than trillions of lightyears, the paper you quoted isn’t a good support for that argument. Their estimated lower bound for the Universe’s size is only a hundred and something billion, not a trillion. And anyway, that’s probably a really bad use for Bayesian statistics, and they also neglect the possibility of nontrivial topologies. Back on topic, one egregious example I recall was an article in my college’s student newspaper that blamed the infamous Freshman 15 on cheese, and claimed that the average student eats the equivalent of a million Kraft singles while at college. Granted, the author admitted that they just made up that statistic themself, couldn’t they at least have made up a statistic that was remotely plausible? ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2017, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-do-you-want-to-strangle-people-who-use-the-phrase-hundreds-of-billions-of-yearsold/792157/30 "2017-07-27T18:02:26Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > My favorite example of this is when Superman got frozen to “one thousand degrees below zero” on the original TV show. I always wondered if that was Fahrenheit, Celsius, or Kelvin. They turned the freezer up to eleven. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-do-you-want-to-strangle-people-who-use-the-phrase-hundreds-of-billions-of-yearsold/792157.md?page=1)