Sunday, March 15, 2009

What does a Trillion dollars look like?

My brother in law sent this to my email. I have a hard time imagining what a billion looks like let alone a trillion. So to give you all an idea, thought I'd post it here.

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 about so much. 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.
Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...
(And notice those pallets are double stacked.) I know its hard to see in this illustration, but the man is still standing by the corner of these pallets.



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

3 comments:

Stephanie said...

That's crazy!

L Harris said...

and we need that much money for what????

that's insanity!!

nikkicrumpet said...

I love this...it's so cool to actually see the comparison done this way! I can't believe our government is throwing that much money away. It sickens me to realize how much damage is being done to all of our futures!