Tuesday, April 07, 2009

One Trillion Dollars

The power of VISUALISATION.....


To put the Financial issues into perspective........


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.

$100


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.

$10,000


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.

$1,000,000 (one million dollars)


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

$100,000,000 (one hundred million dollars)


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

$1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars)


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.

Go ahead...

Scroll down...

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

$1,000,000,000,000 (one 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







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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd like to see the graphics please

Anonymous said...

Graphics not showing :(
All I can visualize is a 1 with 12 zeros spaced with commas.