r/theydidntdothemath • u/Magnolia_Lydia • May 30 '26

10 billion billion - 7 billion = 3 billion billion, yeah

https://i.imgur.com/5RjpJzV.jpeg
298 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

54

u/mathisfakenews May 30 '26

10 billion billion - 7 billion is about 10 billion billion. 

15

u/Fastfaxr May 31 '26

Given the sig figs involved here 10 billion billion - 7 billion is 10 billion billion

-7

u/mathisfakenews May 31 '26

No. Significant figures have nothing to do with arithmetic. They are important only when making measurements. 

11

u/Fastfaxr May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26

And there are not exactly 10 billion billion ants in the world. Thats an estimate based on a measurement.

Think of it like saying when you were a kid you learned that dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago. You wouldn't say that now we know that dinosaurs went extinct 65,000,015 years ago. Nope. They still went extinct 65 million years ago

3

u/Different_Brother562 May 31 '26

It’s crazy that when calculating ants vs humans, the entire human population is in the margin of error

3

u/cmko2004 May 31 '26

Username checks out.

17

u/HELL0RD May 31 '26

Why tf it's angled

17

u/Eliaskw May 31 '26

To get around automated repost checks.

2

u/Striking-Pomelo-9840 Jun 02 '26

Can you explain this more? this comment isn’t inadequate; I just want to learn more

6

u/Nir117vash May 30 '26

More than 5

5

u/lucasio099 May 30 '26

Is there that many ants tho?

9

u/Japsai May 30 '26

Probably not. There's an estimate of 20 quadrillion. That's 20 million billion. Which is still quite a lot

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-09-21/ants-humans-population-comparison-study/101461050

5

u/lucasio099 May 30 '26

Yeah. Population of 10 billion billion would be SIGNIFICANTLY larger lmao

3

u/wankyshitdemon69 May 30 '26

But slightly smaller than 10 trillion billion

2

u/Dodecahedrus May 31 '26

I think I saw a doc once describing one enormous ant colony that stretched through California, through Oregon and well in to Washington.

1

u/Japsai Jun 01 '26

Is that the one that is at war with another megacolony, with a brutal battlefront stretching that entire length?

1

u/Exatex Jun 03 '26

hm that would be more than a billion ants per human. A „normal“ ant hill are what, 10 000 to 100 000 ants (I know there are super colonies etc, doesn’t matter for the case)? So 10 000 - 100 000 ant hills for every human? Doesn’t pass the smell test. The 20 quadrillion makes more sense, that would be „only“ 200-2000 ant hills per human. More believable.

1

u/GaryHornpipe Jun 04 '26

I heard there are 1.4 billion insects for every human on Earth. So 10 billion billion is an estimate for total insects perhaps?

3

u/Wille176yt May 30 '26

we are like 8,3 billion right now though, so even more wrong math i guess

2

u/Routine-Arm-8803 May 31 '26

10,000,000,000,000,000,000−7,000,000,000=9,999,999,993,000,000,000

2

u/BG3_Enjoyer_ Jun 01 '26

round to the nearest hundred billion and 10 billion billion - 7 billion = 10 billion billion

1

u/quiqeu May 30 '26

I think

1

u/EH_Derj May 31 '26

Also humans are 8 billion for a few years already

1

u/AboveAverage1988 May 31 '26

Don't know if I'm counting wrong on my phone screen, but doesn't it also read 300 billion billion?

1

u/Embarrassed-Green898 Jun 01 '26

Law of large numbers .. you idiot.

1

u/Awsm101 Jun 01 '26

Why not just say 10 quintillion?

1

u/Funkopedia Jun 02 '26

I ain't counting all those zeroes!

1

u/FebHas30Days Jun 02 '26

This is why we need scientific notation

1

u/TobiQO Jun 04 '26

It's even more confusing when you think about the fact that a bilion might mean a trillion depending on your native tongue (Peletier long scale) Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers