I was talking about space & stuff with a friend, and we were going on and on about how so many people have a really poor grasp of just how astronomically large astronomical distances are. At one point, it was alleged that humans can't even conceive of a million, let alone the billions and trillions required to understand space. I thought about that for a while, and as it turns out, yes I can so too imagine a billion - and so can you! Here, let me teach you how.
First, a teaching tool. Did you ever use these little yellow blocks to count when you were in gradeschool? I did, at least in the fifth and sixth grades (I went to different schools every year before that, so I don't know how far back they use these).
Wait, you mean tiny yellow cubes a centimeter on a side are chokeable?