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What does one TRILLION dollars look like?
http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html ^ | 12-14-09

Posted on 12/14/2009 2:03:46 PM PST by Indy Pendance

Edited on 12/14/2009 2:31:42 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]

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...

Notice those pallets are double stacked. ...and remember those are $100 bills.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
We toss out a trillion like it's everyday lingo. I hope this helps.
1 posted on 12/14/2009 2:03:46 PM PST by Indy Pendance
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To: Indy Pendance

In the movie “The Taking of Pelham 123”, $10 million in $100 bills weighed 220 lbs.


2 posted on 12/14/2009 2:07:54 PM PST by wolfcreek (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd7DGqVSIc)
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To: Indy Pendance

This won’t be a problem when the Fed has to start circulating $1 million bank notes in order to buy a loaf of bread.


3 posted on 12/14/2009 2:09:02 PM PST by littleharbour
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To: wolfcreek

I’d gladly be responsible for that weight!


4 posted on 12/14/2009 2:11:58 PM PST by Indy Pendance (Conservatives: we are their worst nightmare)
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To: Indy Pendance

5 posted on 12/14/2009 2:13:39 PM PST by MarkeyD (I support the Secret Service but not their mission.)
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To: Indy Pendance

Give everyone you see there about 8.77 million dollars each as they walk out the gate would be about a trillion dollars.


6 posted on 12/14/2009 2:13:53 PM PST by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: Indy Pendance

It’s all just numbers on paper to politicians. They no longer have any concept of just what they are actually playing with.


7 posted on 12/14/2009 2:14:53 PM PST by reagan_fanatic (Socialism is hip until somebody loses a paycheck)
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To: Indy Pendance

The best representation I’ve seen. It’s a lot clearer than “Would go around the Earth X times.”


8 posted on 12/14/2009 2:15:24 PM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Indy Pendance
Can you break this?


9 posted on 12/14/2009 2:15:31 PM PST by Sgt_Schultze (A half-truth is a complete lie)
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To: Indy Pendance

Here is another way to conceptualize a trillion dollars:

A trillion one dollar bills weighs 1,102,188 TONS.

An inch of rainfall on one acre weighs 113.31 TONS.

As federal/state/local governments spend our money like water they would need 9,727.19 inches of rain over an acre ...

Or, a massive acre aquarium that is 810.59 ft deep to weigh as much as a trillion one dollar bills.


Fact check stats:

One dollar bill weighs .03527 oz.

One inch rainfall weight/acre: http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/dickinso/research/2004/range04c.htm


10 posted on 12/14/2009 2:17:14 PM PST by taxcutisapayraise (Making Statism Unpopular)
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To: Indy Pendance

this is way out of date. We need one that shows $11 trillion.


11 posted on 12/14/2009 2:18:54 PM PST by MNDude (The Republican Congress Economy--1995-2007)
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To: antiRepublicrat

The circumference of the earth is abstract for most of us. So, it’s meaningless. Pallets are much more realistic for everyday people. I thought this concept really hit home.

It’s hard to wrap your brain around a trillion dollars, but for me, this really helped.


12 posted on 12/14/2009 2:18:56 PM PST by Indy Pendance (Conservatives: we are their worst nightmare)
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To: Indy Pendance
What does one TRILLION dollars look like?



13 posted on 12/14/2009 2:23:04 PM PST by Alex Murphy ("Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" - Job 13:15)
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To: MNDude

Just multiply that last pic by 11 or 22 or 55 or whatever latest number they conjure up. It’s mind blowing!

We’re in an economic revolution. Thank God, our family has survival skills. Going Galt has a relevant meaning more so than ever.


14 posted on 12/14/2009 2:24:05 PM PST by Indy Pendance (Conservatives: we are their worst nightmare)
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To: wolfcreek

So, if I’ve done my math correctly, one million $1 bills is quite literally a TON OF MONEY....

These pics would be even more impressive if they used $1 bills instead of $100...

That double stacked pallet farm of bills is only 10 billion bills.


15 posted on 12/14/2009 2:31:55 PM PST by Hessian (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.)
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To: Sgt_Schultze

For a laugh I ordered a set of them from a dealer on ebay. I got that one plus the 50 20 and 10 Trillion dollar notes. They almost feel fake but a fake would be worth about as much as the real thing so I am not exactly worried.


16 posted on 12/14/2009 2:32:45 PM PST by xp38
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To: MNDude

So here you go, the U.S. National Debt in $100 dollar bills...

http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/pallet_x_10000_x_11.jpg


17 posted on 12/14/2009 2:34:01 PM PST by Second Amendment First
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To: Second Amendment First
National debt:
18 posted on 12/14/2009 2:36:03 PM PST by Second Amendment First
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To: Indy Pendance

A billion seconds ago was about 31 years, 1978.

The year 29,000 BC was close to a trillion seconds ago.


19 posted on 12/14/2009 2:36:33 PM PST by Jacquerie (It is only in the context of Natural Law that our Declaration & Constitution form a coherent whole.)
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To: Indy Pendance

I have heard it said that there has not been 1 Billion minutes since Christ walked the earth.


20 posted on 12/14/2009 2:39:02 PM PST by US Navy Vet
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To: Indy Pendance

that’s chump change if you are a politician. Plenty more where that came from


21 posted on 12/14/2009 2:40:31 PM PST by paul51 (11 September 2001 - Never forget)
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To: Second Amendment First; MNDude
Here you go... 11 Trillion dollars. Notice the guy in the corner... We're approaching empire state building


This is old, but still, a trillion is a trillion is a trillion.....

TANNER EDUCATES COLLEAGUES ON NATIONAL DEBT

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Rep. John Tanner today sent a letter to other Members of Congress to help highlight what Tanner calls “the mortgaging of our country’s future.” The text of the letter follows:

Dear Colleague:

The Growing Debt Storm

The United States Treasury maintains the latest debt figures.

In a little more than four years, we have increased the privately held debt by $1.2 trillion.

It took the United States more than 200 years before it accumulated as much debt as we borrowed in the past 4 years.

To put this into context, we are borrowing at approximately the following rates:

$34 billion per month
$1.1 billion per day
$48 million per hour
$796,000 per minute
$13,300 per second

Net interest on the debt we owe totaled $160 billion last year, so we are spending at approximately the following rates:

$13 billion per month
$444 million per day
$18 million an hour
$308,000 a minute
$5,100 a second

You might wonder: what's the difference between a million, a billion and a trillion?

Million
A million hours ago was in 1891.
To count out 1 million nonstop without sleep or eating, it would take 2-1/2 weeks.

Billion

A billion seconds ago, Richard Nixon was President.
6.8 billion seconds ago, President George Washington was sworn into office.
A billion minutes ago was just after the time of Christ.
To count out 1 billion nonstop without sleep or eating, it would take 38-1/2 years.

Trillion
Most mathematicians do not even use the term trillion – mostly government uses it.

One trillion seconds ago – 31,688 years – Neanderthals walked the earth.

If you stack up one-thousand dollar bills, a million dollars would be about a foot high. A billion dollars would be about the size of the Empire State Building.  A trillion dollars would be 1,000 Empire State Buildings.

How much do we owe to foreigners?

Currently, foreign investors own approximately $2 trillion in U.S. bonds and notes. Furthermore, more than half of that amount is owned by foreign central banks.

We owe Japan $701.6 billion; China $247 billion; Caribbean Banking Centers $92.5 billion; Korea $67.7 billion; and OPEC nations $64.7 billion.

What are people saying about the U.S. Federal Debt?

[The United States] is now more dependant on foreign capital than it has been at any point in the past half-century.  In the past few months, the dollar has been falling against the euro, the yen and the pound.  A weakening dollar is a sign of waning demand for the U.S. currency, an indication that foreigners may be growing less enthusiastic about investing in the U.S.
--Wall Street Journal Europe, January 15, 2005

A former official at the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, and now an economist at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in Hong Kong was recently quoted in The Washington Post as saying, “The U.S. dollar is now at the mercy of Asian governments.” (September 13, 2003)

How fast are we mortgaging our future?

In the time it takes to drive from the Memphis Airport to my hometown, Union City, Tennessee, the federal government has borrowed nearly $100 billion.

In the time it takes to watch the nightly news, we have borrowed $24 billion.

In the time is has taken for you to read this fact sheet, the government has borrowed more than $1 million.

22 posted on 12/14/2009 2:41:06 PM PST by Indy Pendance (Conservatives: we are their worst nightmare)
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To: US Navy Vet

I heard we could spend a million dollars a day since Christ, and not make a dent.


23 posted on 12/14/2009 2:42:18 PM PST by Indy Pendance (Conservatives: we are their worst nightmare)
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To: Indy Pendance

wow, that was fast! I can’t believe you found that!


24 posted on 12/14/2009 2:44:20 PM PST by MNDude (The Republican Congress Economy--1995-2007)
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To: Indy Pendance
So if we were to divide 2 trillion equally among all the adults in the United States, how much money would each of us have?
25 posted on 12/14/2009 2:45:12 PM PST by GOPJ (Journalists as BaghdadBobLite - Global Warming Scientists as ElmerGantry - what's happening?)
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To: GOPJ
2,000,000,000,000,000 ÷ 300,000,000 = 6666.67 per every person

Or

2 trillion ÷ 3 hundred million = 6666.67 per person every person

26 posted on 12/14/2009 2:57:55 PM PST by Indy Pendance (Conservatives: we are their worst nightmare)
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To: US Navy Vet

Close, but not quite right. It’s generally believed that Christ died in April, 31 A.D. Counting from there to late 2009, we get about 1,040,000,000 minutes. Just over a billion.


27 posted on 12/14/2009 3:25:07 PM PST by 3niner (When Obama succeeds, America fails.)
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To: Indy Pendance

Thanks!!


28 posted on 12/14/2009 4:01:45 PM PST by GOPJ (Journalists as BaghdadBobLite - Global Warming Scientists as ElmerGantry - what's happening?)
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To: Indy Pendance

In binary 1s and 0s:

1110100011010100101001010001000000000000

But if they were erased from a hard-drive, or whatever medium they were stored upon, well I suppose it wouldn’t “look” like anything at all.

Now you see it... now you don’t.

Poof! All gone.


29 posted on 12/14/2009 4:59:12 PM PST by LomanBill (Animals! The DemocRats blew up the windmill with an Acorn!)
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