Counting to One Million

Date: 10/25/1999 at 00:30:21
From: Joseph Guarez
Subject: Counting to one million

How long would it take to count to one million?

I've counted to a hundred and I wrote down that time. Then I counted 
from 300,000 to 300,100 and wrote that time down. I then counted again 
from 7,000,000 to 7,000,100 and wrote that time down. I then averaged 
those times and used that as the time to count each one hundred. I 
know I'm not making much sense but I really would like to have some 
help. 

Thanks.

Date: 10/25/1999 at 17:59:51
From: Doctor Schwa
Subject: Re: Counting to one million

This actually makes quite a lot of sense. Now you know, for instance, 
that it takes you on average 70 seconds to count 100 numbers.

That is, your RATE of counting is 100 numbers / 70 seconds, just like 
miles per hour, only for you it's numbers per second.

And remember distance = rate * time? That's like

     miles = (miles per hour) * hours

only now for you it's going to be

     numbers counted = (numbers per second) * seconds.

You know how many numbers you want to count (a million), you have 
measured about how many numbers per second you can count, so now you 
can solve for the third thing, the total number of seconds it will 
take.

- Doctor Schwa, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/