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.
(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.
from My Posterous
al
March 7th 2009 - 9:43pm
wish i could give it to the nearest alcoholics anonomous group
Bec
March 8th 2009 - 3:16am
thanks for putting it in context. still insane though! :)
lorrie @cuteangel79
March 8th 2009 - 5:46pm
good use of graphics in your post
Hüseyin Kafkas
March 8th 2009 - 8:45pm
We can see how the money makes us.. “Smaller”
Michael Maguigad
March 9th 2009 - 6:42am
WOW
Patrick
March 9th 2009 - 8:06am
Great visuals.
abdusfauzi
March 9th 2009 - 8:11am
OMG! that is a 'Money-Field'. Hahaha.
leo
March 9th 2009 - 1:23pm
exxon's revenues every 3 years. not bad…
ibrahim yurt
March 9th 2009 - 2:58pm
zenginin parası züğürdün klevyesini bozar.
Brendan Dalley
March 9th 2009 - 10:54pm
Now that puts our economy in perspective.
Brandon P
March 10th 2009 - 12:15pm
This x 10 is the deficit bush created.
Bryan Saxton
March 11th 2009 - 4:20pm
It's JUST 1 trillion dollars.
Thanks for putting 1 trillion in context.
Andrew
March 13th 2009 - 7:11pm
Thanks mate……… its certainly really puts the mass there, well done…….
JA
March 14th 2009 - 4:39pm
what is one trillion in one dollar bills?
Poormofo
March 26th 2009 - 1:40am
All from Indigenous Lands and resources, now multiply that by 500 years.
While Indigenous live in Third World Poverty!
Gerry
March 26th 2009 - 10:17pm
Maybe this was the total American debt at the end of Bush’s tenure, but Obama is going to double it in 4 years!!!
DUFF
March 27th 2009 - 12:36am
#11,GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT.IT STARTED WHILE HE WAS IN OFFICE,ONLY AFTER THE DEMOCRATS CONTROLLED CONGRESS!
Zabou
March 31st 2009 - 1:07pm
Who cares?
Is one of us ever going to see it and more likely stand right next to it?
gangstuh
March 31st 2009 - 6:01pm
woooow, mind bottling lol
rachel
April 1st 2009 - 8:46pm
ow this is pretty amazing and it is in $100 bills to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
natasha
April 1st 2009 - 8:59pm
you are really ssssttttuuuuppppiiiidddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lwkh;eliholqipeih
April 1st 2009 - 9:37pm
i want that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you slut bitch, fucken ass hole!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bear
April 4th 2009 - 1:41am
how fast does 1 trillion dollars burn?
…just ask the goverment.
G- Man
April 5th 2009 - 2:52pm
I have also heard the $1 Trillion dollars is the same as if you were to spend $1 million us dollars every day since the birth if christ to the present day. Now thats spending!!!
You wont be able to stash that kind of cash under the bed! (As you can see)
Egghead
April 9th 2009 - 11:07pm
Is it me or does the $1 Million pile look wrong? I was thinking that 100 packs of $10,000 would look slightly bigger. If each $10,000 is around half an inch (ok so it says less than half an inch but anyway), then if the 100 packs are arranged in two rows (as it looks like) of 50 packs then they would be about 25″ long.
Does nobody else think the pile looks a little small?
If all the other calulations are based on this million, then unfortunately the bigger piles are wrong too! Can somebody make it clear that this is correct?
Siim
April 10th 2009 - 5:03pm
I noticed that something was wrong so i started to calculate and draw (knowing what are the dimensions of a hundred dollar bill)(wiki) and his graphics are way off.
joe
April 24th 2009 - 5:55pm
although the dimensions maybe off I think the point is how long will it take to recover it through taxes or what ever
I found that if you count out 1 trillion dollars based on 1 dollar per second it would take 31,591 years. So that means
the government would have to collect $6.318.2 per second
to get 1 trillion in 5 years.
Sophie
April 25th 2009 - 12:57pm
I think all the piles are wrong except for the $10,000 one. Starting with the million, that doesn’t look like a 100 packs to me. And the $100 million dollar one is way off. All you need to do is go to youtube and search “205 million in cash” and its a huge bedroom full of cash, and half of that, it is not as small as that. If they wanted to do it right, it should have been half a huge bedroom of cash because that drawing is completely way off. The billion dollar one. They say it is as big as a large car, now if 200 million is a huge bedroom of cash, I don’t see how 1 billion is the size of a large car. And while the trillion one looks okay, I think it has to be much more than that and if all the pallets are double stacked then its a lot but still not that much to be a trillion dollars. Sorry, but these peron’s graphics are way off base.
geo
May 3rd 2009 - 2:56am
The one million pile is right. your taking crisp 10,000 dollar bills which equal 1/2 an inch… so 10 stacks would be 5 inches, 10 stacks by 5 in a row by 2 rows equals 100.
m.j.
May 7th 2009 - 11:18pm
hey, as long as it looks like something and the people that were talking about all that math stuff……….you guys are f@*&$!g nerds
Michael DePaola
May 19th 2009 - 3:24pm
you are really SSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDD
lamdar
May 26th 2009 - 3:34am
Can’t wait till it gets to quadrillion…
Mike
June 1st 2009 - 8:22pm
And you’re an ignorant asshole.
your mum
June 13th 2009 - 4:32pm
WOW. This is almost half of what I earn every week!
ROD S
June 19th 2009 - 7:04pm
Whether you are Democrat, Republican, or any other party, you should be angry and concerned about the fact that our national debt is now over $11 trillion and still climbing rapidly.
There is plenty of blame for the actions and inactions of many of our politicians over many decades that have brought us to this point.
If you are not concerned, perhaps it’s because you cannot comprehend how much a trillion dollars is.
Actually, there is very little on the internet, so I used my calculator and came up with these facts.
ALL OF THESE EXAMPLES ARE USING $100 BILLS.
If connected end to end, they would stretch 966,698 miles.
If put in a single stack, it would be 678.66 miles high.
If you counted one $100 bill per second non-stop it would take 317.1 years
If you stacked them tightly into a cube with no gaps, it would measure 73’ 8 ¼” on each side.
If you “carpeted” an area with no overlaps or gaps, it would cover 40.05 square miles.
Keep in mind that this is “only” $1 trillion. Our debt is more than eleven times this.
Now are you concerned?
Jeff
July 2nd 2009 - 8:24pm
Wrong; bush’s deficit was one trillion. Obama’s is ten trillion!
Ben Franklin Jr.
July 16th 2009 - 2:31pm
You know the Boston Tea party started because of a tax increase. Do you know how huge of an increase it took to cause this rebellion? 1/4 of 1%. Folks they are going to start regulating the crap out of our firearms next so there can be no overthrow, or adjustment. I would propose to pay any government official for any government program he can cut out of the budget. Since special interests lobbing get there way with money or gifts, we have to make sure we pay them more to look out for our best interests, by cutting the budget and getting the country back on its feet. Oh by the way has anyone seen any changes in the way the business world is all of a sudden working and making money since the trillions have hit the street. ME EITHER. We now are having hints from the leadership they made a math error and the first stimulus was not enough. The government needs more money to stimulate the economy. How come I have to stay in my budget and the government has NO IDEA what the hell a budget is. They talk about it like they know, but they don’t. If this is how much money went into the economy for real. Shouldn’t we see the wheels spinning and smoke coming from them. At least when Roger Pennski throws a million at a race car it sits on the pole. Maybe we can get him to tell the government how to throw the money. Because they are not doing it right! Or maybe the economy is messed up because of cow emissions, you know the methane problem. I hope and pray we can get them to make and live to a budget before we are paying 60% and still not living with in our means as a country. Maybe we could anex Iraq, Iran, and Afganistan? And tax the oil they produce. Have a great year see you all trading on the tax free black market in a year or so when the government falls on its lack of funds butt in a few years at this rate. Good luck my fellow future Chinese work force.
Rhett Moore
July 22nd 2009 - 2:06pm
Thanks! It is not so bad when put in proper context. Now if you could do that showing the amount of population in the United State equaling that of the pile of money that will have to pay it off. It should go down pretty quickly right? I would also like to see how much was spent on a senseless war and how much of the trillion was spent on the stimulus. All in All great graphics!
Betsy
July 22nd 2009 - 6:41pm
Brandon, give up, your line are old and outdated. Face it, OB’s spending policy is terrible and he is driving our country to ruin. Are you that thick that you can’t see through your Bush hatred to acknowledge what is going on currently by the current administration.
If you TRULY care for this country, give up the old and tired Bush hater rhetoric, give up the Democrat vs. Republican hate mongering, and start caring about your freedoms, rights, and where this country is heading.
If you can’t see this, than buddy, it’s too late.
Betsy
July 22nd 2009 - 6:45pm
Zabou, are you stupid or just a moron? WTF does who cares mean? You should “F”ing care. I don’t know how old you are, but you obviously don’t know anything.
Do you know we owe CHINA most of this money? Do you know that if China decides not to lend us any more money we are SCREWED? Do you know that China owes our a$$? Do you know that YOU will be responsible for paying this money back?
Andy you don’t care? What a moron!!!!
Keith
July 25th 2009 - 2:27pm
Every day you hear some politician tossing the word one trillion around, but just how much is one trillion? One trillion is an enormously large number. It is a one (1) followed by (12) zero’s Trillion has become the new billion. For many people one million is hard enough to comprehend let alone one billion or one trillion. Every jump from million to billion to trillion is one thousand times bigger than the previous “illion”. One trillion is one million millions, or 1000 billion. There are approximately 300 million men women and children in the United States today. For every $1 trillion in debt the politicians saddle the tax payer with amounts to $3333 for every man woman and child in this country.
This is my attempt to equate one trillion with something that hopefully everyone can understand or relate to and comprehend. Everyone knows how big one drop of water is and there are 90,840 drops in 1 gallon of water. One trillion drops of water is equal to 11,008,366 gallons. An Olympic size swimming pool measures 50 m in length and 25 m in width and is 2 m deep and holds 660,000 gallons of water.
One trillion drops of water will fill 16.68 Olympic size pools. Most everyone also knows the physical size of a $100 bill. It takes 10 billion of them to equal $1 trillion. Those 10 billion paper $100 bills would fill 5.1 of those Olympic sized pools. When you hear government officials mouthing off about the national debt and how much this or that costs remember it is not only your future that they are selling but your children’s and your children’s children and their children’s children. I don’t believe they understand what one trillion is, and if they do, they for damned sure hope that you don’t. They have sold their children and grandchildren’s future for their own greed and are now selling yours and everyone else’s.
I da great
August 15th 2009 - 6:43pm
obama just came into office what are u talking about. Bush definetly created the 10 trillion dollar deficit.
I da great
August 15th 2009 - 6:45pm
i dont understand hoe is obama spending more?
concerned globalist
September 3rd 2009 - 4:25pm
This is simply amazing. Thanks for the new perspective!
Anonymous
September 25th 2009 - 5:07pm
i feel like jacking off right now…:)
John Danger
October 12th 2009 - 3:25pm
and to think that all the world derivatives amount to 1.5 quadrillions (that’s 1500 times that) …. THAT’S a scary number!
56
October 21st 2009 - 10:29am
And the day BEFORE 9/11 the Pentagon announced they could not account for 3 TRILLION dollars.
Let’s not forget that most of the money does not exist as paper, it,s only computer money not backed by anything!!!
Bush loser
October 27th 2009 - 4:04am
Bush wasted over 1 trillion on these endless wars. Attack the terrorists not the entire middle east for pete sake! I hate warmongers.
IntheKnow
October 29th 2009 - 4:49pm
I have never seen so many losers in one place before! Blame it all on Bush… you ignorant, stupid, retarded cretins.
bigmac
November 4th 2009 - 7:07pm
wtf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fuck never in my life will i have that much money
cRaZzzZY
November 26th 2009 - 5:45am
PuT iT tHiS wAy, If YoU sMoKe sOmE mIgHtY fInE bOnG yOu aRe gOnNa hAvE hAvE x 10000000000000000000000000000000000 TrIlLiOn
_________________________________________________________
eVErY oNe’S rIcH wHeN yOuR hIgH :D
Anonymous
December 20th 2009 - 1:54am
10 trillon one dollar bills should fill 8 world trade buildings.
Anonymous
December 22nd 2009 - 10:15pm
you don’t want to play wit fire near that ….
kurttasche
January 11th 2010 - 8:14pm
Wow! Now imagine if it was all in pennies!!!
Olay
January 18th 2010 - 7:49am
Hey! You used Sketchup for those images! Great software, eh?
:D
Drasher
January 30th 2010 - 3:51am
It would take 3 years to spend all that… and that’s if you spent a billion a day.. at least that’s what my old Man said…That’s a lot off monies
cfg
February 2nd 2010 - 9:47pm
thats a ass of money
bruce van
February 7th 2010 - 3:11pm
For the guy who said that the million looks small? Have u never had a million dollars in ur possesion? Cause iit looks pretty close to the right size to me, I did a lil test not to long ago nd walked around miami with a mill in winn dixie bag nd I had no problem with nebody, completly undetectable. Just think about that
VCP
February 8th 2010 - 9:50pm
That billion dollars is MINE! FIVE TIMES OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEss!