# when did we need to count to 1 million **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 14, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-we-need-to-count-to-1-million/678799 "2014-01-14T18:56:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-we-need-to-count-to-1-million/678799/21 "2014-01-15T23:24:00Z")
I wonder if an ancient observer has ever tried to count the stars in the sky? Perhaps by counting a section of sky and multiplying it to try to arrive at a calculation. No light pollution would have meant that many many many stars would have been visible to the naked eye. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-we-need-to-count-to-1-million/678799/22 "2014-01-16T01:19:27Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > No light pollution would have meant that many many many stars would have been visible to the naked eye. Only about 10,000 I think. **looks it up** Hmm. Not even that, it seems only 6000 are visible. Though maybe if you count both hemispheres… Non-naked eye, i.e. a telescope, would make a big difference, but that would have been long after “million” became a commonly used number. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2014, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-we-need-to-count-to-1-million/678799/23 "2014-01-16T04:21:17Z")
Similar to census would be ballots for voting. Ignore, I see **OldGuy** already mentioned this one. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-we-need-to-count-to-1-million/678799/24 "2014-01-17T03:21:01Z")
Perhaps its telling that in most languages from Persian and Kazak to the west, the word for million is some cognate of “million?” [million - Wiktionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/million#Translations) Words for thousand follow the usual patterns of language families/branches (like mille, tausend, 'alf). ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-we-need-to-count-to-1-million/678799/25 "2014-01-17T19:24:14Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > I wonder if an ancient observer has ever tried to count the stars in the sky? Perhaps by counting a section of sky and multiplying it to try to arrive at a calculation. No light pollution would have meant that many many many stars would have been visible to the naked eye. This nearly made me throw a book through the TV screen when a children’s programme was reading a story about a little penguin who wanted to know how much a million was. After seeing many large numbers of things - including snowflakes in a snowstorm, which _would_ have qualified quite easily - the little penguin was shown a night sky full of stars… which is out by two or three orders of magnitude. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-we-need-to-count-to-1-million/678799/26 "2014-01-17T23:12:35Z")
I would interpret the OP’s question to mean “When was the first time an exact number of seven or more digits was used in order to express a quantity of actual things?” This could have been expressed as a calculated value, such as X loads of Y objects, where XY\>1,000,000, which could have been musket balls, yards of yarn, or the like, where a fairly exact calculation of both X and Y are known. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-we-need-to-count-to-1-million/678799/27 "2014-01-18T19:34:52Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > I would interpret the OP’s question to mean “When was the first time an exact number of seven or more digits was used in order to express a quantity of actual things?” This could have been expressed as a calculated value, such as X loads of Y objects, where XY\>1,000,000, which could have been musket balls, yards of yarn, or the like, where a fairly exact calculation of both X and Y are known. I would say yes, this is essentially what I was meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-we-need-to-count-to-1-million/678799/28 "2014-01-19T08:07:41Z")
When did “million” first show up in reference to astronomical distances? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-we-need-to-count-to-1-million/678799/29 "2014-01-19T12:34:06Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > I would interpret the OP’s question to mean “When was the first time an exact number of seven or more digits was used in order to express a quantity of actual things?” This could have been expressed as a calculated value, such as X loads of Y objects, where XY\>1,000,000, which could have been musket balls, yards of yarn, or the like, where a fairly exact calculation of both X and Y are known. My guess would be some 5 to 6 thousand years ago. The quantity counted would be units of grain turned into the graneries at some temple during a single harvest. Exactly where this would have been is hard to say, but almost certainly in Sumer. Ur and Eridu would be the main suspects. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-we-need-to-count-to-1-million/678799.md?page=1)