1 dimension:   Distance

2 dimensions - Area

2D:  length & width

The same million golf balls, laid side by side on a golf course, would cover an area of grass about 100 feet long on each side.

News stories often distort the meaning of large numbers by mentally stringing objects out into unrealistic shapes, like hamburgers or dollar bills stacked up to the moon. As writers or readers, we need to think twice when a story describes something in one dimension if it could be more clearly seen in other ways.

Dimensions can be deceiving

One million golf balls in three different dimensions.

A million  golf  balls  could  be  strung together,  at  least  in  the  imagination,  into  a  single  row that  would  be about  26  miles  long  reaching  into  space.  The  string  of  golf  balls  would  be  more than four times  the  height  of  Mount Everest.

3D:  length, width & height

A million golf balls would make a nice sized load for a large truck.

3 dimensions - Volume