Ever wanted to see 1 trillion dollars?

[dannyayo]

All this talk about "stimulus packages" and "bailouts"...

A billion dollars...

A hundred billion dollars...

Eight hundred billion dollars...

One TRILLION dollars...

What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I'd take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.
We'll start with a $100 dollar bill.

Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet...

And $1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere...

Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.
You ready for this?
It's pretty surprising.
Go ahead...
Scroll down...

Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...

(And notice those pallets are double stacked.)

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.

[angliaant]

thats mental... now do it for pounds

[dannyayo]

Imagine it in penny's

It blows the mind doesn't it

[Graham_S1]

yeah, then times it by 10! and thats what the total Americans are in for at the moment since the bailouts started.

[Antony_James]

haha pretty cool

[Dave]

Good one Danny

[zoso11]

Imagine it in penny's

It blows the mind doesn't it

Yeah imagine feeding it into the "change for cash" machine at asda!!

Great Post!!

[boXXer]

thats cool

[zoso11]

Didnt Mr Burns have a trillion dollar bill.. and ended in castros hands

[M11rf]

That's bloody huge!!!

[4drmatt]

Imagine it in penny's

It blows the mind doesn't it

i'll try and dig out the website for that

[4drmatt]

i'll try and dig out the website for that

http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/1.asp

[M11rf]

good site, but they go a bit OTT... I guess it is an Amercan site after all

[keg]

i would still have a good go at fitting them into my house

[qcadta]

youd think it would be hard to lose or misplace that amount of money

[RETRO_AL]

I could spend that in no time

[l0ubie]

english and american billions and trillions are different!
Americans use billion to mean one thousand million (1,000,000,000),
where as in the UK, it means one million million (1,000,000,000,000).

[dannyayo]

It says in the post

"""Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.""

[team_zi]

The US and UK both use short scales, as do most English speaking countries.

So a trillion (1x10^12) in the UK is exactly the same number in the States.