Trying to imagine the enormity of geological time

It's very difficult for everyone to imagine the enormity of geological time: we talk about millions of years but how big is one million? Try this ELI - 'How many for a million? How many sheets of graph paper for 1 million, or 100 million, or a 1000 million squares?'

This activity involves calculations to help pupils to visualise the enormity of a million years, and then 1000 million years. Pupils are asked to use the 50,000 mm squares on a sheet of graph paper as a means of visualising what 1 million, 100 million and 1000 million look like.

Many more activities related to Geological time can be found on our website.