What 1 TRILLION Dollars Looks Like In Dollar Bills

What 1 TRILLION Dollars Looks Like In Dollar Bills

What ONE TRILLION dollars looks like in dollar bills...

Have you ever though about it. What would 1 trillion dollars look like, layed out in front of you?

I mean, these numbers numbers are tossed around like 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 it's the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation.

Pretty much, everyone has seen a $100 bill. But fewer have owned them. :-)

They're also guaranteed to make friends wherever you go!

$100

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000.

It's fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decent 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 anyway?

Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros ($1,000,000,000,000)

You ready for this?

It's pretty surprising.

Scroll down...I give you $1 trillion dollars...

Almost there...

$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.

Related/Similar Posts You May Find Interesting:

8 Trillion Phone Bill

10 Most Overpaid Jobs In USA

49 Things Someone with Way Too Much Money Paid For

13 Stupid Ideas That Made Millions of Dollars!

41 Money Facts That Will Blow You Away

Mans 10-Year Erection Earns Him 0,000

Dog Eats More Than 0 In Cash

The Bird Who Stole 00 From a Car Wash Shop

Article Info & Options:

Date: 25 Mar 2009 | Author: mesmerX | Category: Pictures | Views: 84940

» TrackBack
» Print
» RSS

Share this article:

Comments: 104

Who's Colin | 12 Nov 2009 - 15:40

What's a stack of $200,000 look like. I'll let ya know when I get there, whoscolin.com

Guest | 8 Nov 2009 - 20:42

If I spanked your ass for a trillion times ... how much ass would you have?

Zimbabwe | 28 Oct 2009 - 22:45

Nice! Have a look at this zimbabwe-dollar caused by hyperinflation:
http://butnowyouknow.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/zimbabwe_100_trillion_2009_obverse.jpg

100 trillion dollars laughing

Guest | 26 Oct 2009 - 14:01

And this is not the only problem, we have things going on in our country that are far worse,but this has the most attention.The old story of the right hand drawing attention and nobody is watching the left hand.

DiDo | 25 Oct 2009 - 10:33

And just think, 1 trillion dollars in $1 dollar bills would be 100 times what you saw in $100 dollar bills. Pretty scarry huh!

Guest | 22 Oct 2009 - 19:29

Some say it's Obama's fault, some say it's Bush, hell I even heard a guy blame it on Reagan and Clinton. They are all WRONG, IT'S EVEYONE'S FAULT, we elected them, couldn't get past ourselves to se the fact that THEY are ALL CROOKS, and we are all VICTIMS, and always will be until we wake up and elect a third party that MAKES them accountable!

Guest | 20 Oct 2009 - 07:04

PLEASE SEND TO EVERY ELECTED OFFICIAL IN WASHINGTON!!

Guest | 19 Oct 2009 - 23:00

Who is in debt to who? Who creates money? Do we owe the government and the government owes who exactly?

Guest | 19 Oct 2009 - 12:44

"In GOD we trust." -All others pay cash...

Guest | 18 Oct 2009 - 15:41

Never in the history of man has an empire lasted
and the America our parents knew is over, gone never to return. Get over it.

Guest | 18 Oct 2009 - 10:24

America's youth will be the ones to pay this back.

Weren't they Obama's biggest support base?

Guest | 17 Oct 2009 - 14:47

Consider dying as an option: crying

Guest | 17 Oct 2009 - 14:46

Consider dying as an opt out!

Guest | 17 Oct 2009 - 08:35

holly shit!!!! .... thats the size of my dick

Guest | 17 Oct 2009 - 07:46

Hey "Can't Figure" - wow.. are you really that stupid? The dimensions of the pallet have nothing to do with the math! plus... the way you arrived at 20,000 pallets?? egad! 1 row of pallets 50 X 100 = 5,000... double THAT if you stack 2 high.... still getting 20,000 pallets?? If you are representative of today's Math, it's no wonder

cant figure | 16 Oct 2009 - 04:10

Small correction to last post. The last graphic is WRONG. By my calculation. $1M (10Kx100 or 1/2"x2-1/2"x6" x 100) is 0.434 ft3. One pallet 4'x4'x2-1/2' =40ft3 is $100M. 1 Trillion is 434,000 ft3, only 6781 pallets. The graphic shows 50x2W X 100x2D is 20,000 pallets.

cant figure | 16 Oct 2009 - 03:59

I agree with Bruce, the last graphic is WRONG. By my calculation. $10K is (1/2"x2-1/2"x6") 0.434 ft3. One pallet 4'x4'x2-1/2' =40ft3 is $100M. 1 Trillion is 434,000 ft3, only 6781 pallets. The graphic shows 50x2W X 100x2D is 20,000 pallets. Liers Figure! FIX the GRAPHIC.

harleyrider1978 | 16 Oct 2009 - 03:25

anybody got a 50 spot for an out of work x-obama supporter.....I tried to get me a job but, them wall street boyz kicked me to duh curb as i WAS BEGGING THEM FOR A FEW PENNIES...

Guest | 14 Oct 2009 - 10:28

And then there was HUGE fire, and it all burned down. the end tongue

Guest | 13 Oct 2009 - 05:49

what....the.... CRAP!

Guest | 13 Oct 2009 - 02:49

i love you

Guest | 11 Oct 2009 - 03:29

HELP - How are our kids going to pay this one back.

Guest | 11 Oct 2009 - 00:15

Just like every other country in history that has had this problem...the debt will be paid off with bills that have more zeros. It's easy to pay off a trillion if your paying with billion dollar bills. It's just Monopoly money at that point.

Guest | 10 Oct 2009 - 16:16

Guest | 10 Oct 2009 - 07:08

nice calculation... and while we are looking at only $1 trillion we need to remember a few things:
1. the total federal deficit is about $13 TRILLION. so 6 and a bit years x 13 = 78+ years. Basically longer than the life expectancy of the average American (which is on the decrease due to obesity)
2. we have to think that EVERY American has to pay $10 a week. That includes newborn children, old people, people in prison, homeless people and the unemployed.

----------------------

You both are forgetting one "minor" detail. That $13 trillion is not sitting there interest free. Even at a 3% interest rate, we would be racking up $390 billion in interest PER YEAR. Enjoy!

Guest | 10 Oct 2009 - 06:41

Too bad it didn't all go strait to the tax payer, eh?

Guest | 10 Oct 2009 - 06:29

Pardon my math - It's actually 3 cents per week!

Guest | 10 Oct 2009 - 06:27

Think about this!
It costs 4 cents to produce a $100 bill.
That means it would cost only $400 million to print enough 100 dollar bills to payoff 1 trillion dollars in deficit. Thats just a bit less than 3 cents per day for every man, woman, and child in the USA. Wanna buy some T-bills?

Guest | 10 Oct 2009 - 03:19

Guest | 9 Oct 2009 - 19:57

nice calculation... and while we are looking at only $1 trillion we need to remember a few things:
1. the total federal deficit is about $13 TRILLION. so 6 and a bit years x 13 = 78+ years. Basically longer than the life expectancy of the average American (which is on the decrease due to obesity)
2. we have to think that EVERY American has to pay $10 a week. That includes newborn children, old people, people in prison, homeless people and the unemployed.

Guest | 9 Oct 2009 - 23:44

Eat Mor Chiken. LOL laughing

Guest | 9 Oct 2009 - 19:57

In response to the question of what if every American paid $10 a week:

According to Google's public data collected from the US Census Bureau, the US population was 304,059,724 in July of 2008.

If each of these 304,059,724 people paid $10 a week, this would equal $3,040,597,240 a week.

One trillion dollars divided by $3,040,597,240 is 329 weeks.

329 weeks is approximately 6.32 years six years and four months.

Guest | 9 Oct 2009 - 16:03

what if every American took $10 a week to pay off the debt? How long would it take to pay off?

Guest | 7 Oct 2009 - 06:31

Pppfffttt... I have one of those in my back yard. Chump change. :P

Guest | 5 Oct 2009 - 08:25

In Zimbabwe, you can /easily/ spend 100 trillion dollars (buying a loaf of bread)!

bighead bails | 5 Oct 2009 - 03:32

no 20 of them:laughing

Guest | 1 Oct 2009 - 22:52

Here's an idea: how does a trillion dollars look like in 1 dollar bills ?! that would be fun

Guest | 1 Oct 2009 - 22:51

Did you know you can never spend 1 trillion dollars?!

Guest | 12 Sep 2009 - 07:32

tht is wats up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guest | 2 Sep 2009 - 02:13

crying:looks like it isn't even worth waiting for your change when you hand the mc'donalds a five dollar bill for your saaaausage& egg bisquit & coffee anymore, hank

Amara | 1 Sep 2009 - 17:03

Good evening. All the world's a cage.
I am from Senegal and , too, and now am writing in English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: "Buy provillus uk, tends can reduce themselves and wear to use radium."

Thanks for the help 8-), Amara.

helen | 29 Aug 2009 - 19:49

wow, hope the ain't a fire

Rico | 27 Aug 2009 - 04:20

Here's another visual that should be included:
youtube.com/watch?v=at3MNu8BRwQ

frog52 | 26 Aug 2009 - 05:57

What's really scary is the Obama admin predicts that our national debt will reach 9 trillion. There are appx. 100 million taxpayers in the US so that equals $90,000 for every taxpayer if we all payed the same amount of taxes!!!!!

Guest | 17 Aug 2009 - 14:06

Sigh what can i say about this all those comment i cannot complain...

Guest | 17 Aug 2009 - 07:31

The title states "...in dollar bills..." but the graphics show stacks of $100 bills. This is an excellent representation, but I think the title should be made to conform to the example: "... in one hundred dollar bills..."

Thanks!

Guest | 15 Aug 2009 - 04:27

Thanks for the answer, but I'm afraid I could not make it through the first thirty seconds. I think for the "average person" its a great way to fathom what a trillion dollars actually is!!!!!

Plexus Genius | 12 Aug 2009 - 18:34

Guest | 31 Jul 2009 - 12:00
If I gave you a $100 bill every second until I reached the trillion dollar mark, how many years would it take???

-- reply

317 years.

I solved your problems...possible that you will give me ?

p.s. I willing to accept.

Caleb | 11 Aug 2009 - 15:57

Good Day. There are plenty of good five-cent cigars in the country. The trouble is they cost a quarter. What this country needs is a good five-cent nickel.
I am from Ukraine and too poorly know English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Buy now! Richwood grandfather curio clock by ridgeway."

Thank you so much for your future answers :D. Caleb.

Guest | 1 Aug 2009 - 23:34

OVER 9000! ... years.

Hope that answers your question.

Guest | 31 Jul 2009 - 12:00

If I gave you a $100 bill every second until I reached the trillion dollar mark, how many years would it take???

alia | 29 Jul 2009 - 10:03

that is so much money that is like the size of a football feild WOW tongue

:was
sat:

Ethan | 24 Jul 2009 - 10:46

Wow!!!!

I wish I had that much!!!!!

miley cyrus | 21 Jul 2009 - 06:50

u are weird

mesmerX | 16 Jul 2009 - 23:30

Divide 1 Trillion by 100. You get:
10,000,000,000. That's 10 billion lifetimes. Each lifetime lasting 100 years.

«Phil | 14 Jul 2009 - 07:49
HEY MATH EXPERTS. Need your help.
Same subject, different point of view.
How many lifetimes would it take to reach a trillion years if each lifetime was 100 years?»

Phil | 14 Jul 2009 - 07:49

HEY MATH EXPERTS. Need your help.
Same subject, different point of view.
How many lifetimes would it take to reach a trillion years if each lifetime was 100 years?

Justice | 9 Jul 2009 - 03:48

well,I would be happy with $1,000 or even 100

Darth Bobo | 5 Jul 2009 - 00:41

Remember, if that were $1 bills, the pallets would be stacked 200 high instead of 2 high.

james | 29 Jun 2009 - 16:12

that is just insane

silver | 26 Jun 2009 - 16:35

We are on our way to becoming a third world country. We need to stop breeding and spending.

Old jim | 21 Jun 2009 - 11:46

What it really means it all that doe is taxes for you youngsters. When the country really goes broke you may have to use the politicians for street lights.

SK | 14 Jun 2009 - 01:58

That is awesome

Andrew | 11 Jun 2009 - 12:10

Wow.

Do you realize, people, that we have to pay, each one of us, around $38,000-$48,000 of the deficit? That's an incredible amount. There's only so much $$$ in the world, and we're using it! STOP THE SPENDING!!!

jesus h crist | 8 Jun 2009 - 09:20

bad ass

Paul | 5 Jun 2009 - 05:35

So ... If I spent $1000 a day it would take me 2 million 7 hundred and 39 thousand 7 hundred and 26 YEARS to spend it all.

iB | 4 Jun 2009 - 19:14

oioioioioi i will become boss of that much money 1 day.... 1000000000000 tongue

Aaron | 4 Jun 2009 - 12:54

your wrong if 100 pallets is 100 million then 1246 pallets would be 100 trillion...
dumbfucks.

Your Mom | 3 Jun 2009 - 03:22

Well in my opinion, most economical problems happend because we want to spend $1.00 when we make $0.80. If we learned to live within our means including our officials we would not be in this mess. Your children should not have to pay for your furniture.

jesse | 1 Jun 2009 - 22:56

thats a lot of money i wish i had that much laughing

mark | 1 Jun 2009 - 03:44

it doesn't matter if the size is incorrect. it's the general idea that a trillion dollars is a ton of cash, and the size represented is to explain just how "big" big is.

none of us will ever see that, so not like it matters.

Zack | 24 May 2009 - 03:19

Scrooge McDuck's wet dream

tydydgrll | 20 May 2009 - 19:24

I work in the main bank of a casino and the representation of a million dollars is way too small. That looks like about $200,000.

hmm | 17 May 2009 - 10:42

I mean yeah, it's a lot of money, but i mean, what is this really saying? Just because it looks big doesn't really mean anything. If it were a 1 trillion dollar bill, the same size as a $1 bill, no one would say "WOW LOOK AT IT!". Conversely, if $1 was the size of a bus, you would be "astounded" by how large the amount was. Things like this miss the point.

Duncan | 13 May 2009 - 09:58

And just imagine: our country is in debt almost 11 of these. jesus christ

Cheese1 | 11 May 2009 - 16:55

@ Slick Andrews

Not quite. 1 trillion divided by 1 million is 1 million, so you would only have to go 1 million hours (or 114 years) to spend 1 trillion dollars. still impressive, but not 2000 years

chris | 11 May 2009 - 06:02

most have been all 1's in brewsters millions.

madu2022 | 10 May 2009 - 05:48

Everyone, it's not too late. It may have been easier for the government to get this kind of spending to pass before because it was hard for regular people to get a handle on the numbers. Now we have the internet. Speak up before it is too late.

Bruce, thank you for trying to get this info out there. I don't blame you if you were a little off; it's hard to make numbers like that comprehensible.

A Conservative | 9 May 2009 - 13:58

Owee. So that is how much the goverment printed? Hmmm, this picture should help e out at school.... here in California! I need a shirt with that last picture on it...

Davebanker.... | 4 May 2009 - 04:37

Hey, can ya spare me a buck for a cup of coffee???

Kodiak1122 | 3 May 2009 - 07:26

1 trillion one dollar bills stacked up would be over 8.5 times the height of planet earth!!!

Gene | 1 May 2009 - 02:59

Sometimes, I think "Gee, wish I was 25-33 again" but looking at this debt we've now gotten, it's incrediable...Sure I supported G. W. Bush, a bit of a hazy CIC, but dear God the damage that's been done now??

I'd seriously consider moving somewhere else...(That kills me to say it, but the young and unborn in this country are going to be saddled with a debt that will basically be unpayable!)

Jack | 22 Apr 2009 - 19:32

A trillion dollars bills (laid end to end) will go around the earth at the equator 3,891 times.

It will go from the earth to the moon and back more than 22 times.

Almost 97 million miles in length.

P.S. A U.S. Note is 6.14 inches in length

Dka | 21 Apr 2009 - 23:55

Actually it would take 114 years to spend your way through 1 trillion at 1 million per hour. Which is quite a bit of spending. But there are ways. You gotta aim a little higher than Manolo Blahniks or even golden bathtubs...

kc | 21 Apr 2009 - 22:18

o snap

Slick Andrews | 21 Apr 2009 - 13:36

Well, I heard on the radio not too long ago, that if someone was alive since the day of Christ's Birth, and spent one million dollars AN HOUR, that person would have to spend until something like 2025, to spend a Trillion bux......WOW!

Sheldon | 21 Apr 2009 - 01:12

I thought it was bad when the tresurey printed the first trillion. But they did it better then 3 more times, well on they're way to a fourth. Someone, Please stop them!!!

jason a | 10 Apr 2009 - 02:37

To date we are on the hook for 12.8 billion according to Bloomberg news. See

bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=armOzfkwtCA4&refer=home

for actual details.

If link is removed, search the following text string in Google: bloomberg "12.8 trillion"

Joe Barta | 9 Apr 2009 - 05:19

I suppose it's one thing to copy material from another web site, but to put your own name on the images? Very poor taste. At any rate folks, *he* didn't put anything in perspective... *I* did. *He* simply copied material from another website.

sodak | 8 Apr 2009 - 10:11

If $10,000 of $100 dollar bills is a 1/2" thick you can put $400,000,000 on a pallet (about 37"X37"x37"). That equals 2500 pallets. A semi tractor trailor holds 24 pallets so it would take 104 semi trailor loads of $100 bills to haul a trillion dollars around.

Tim Taylor | 7 Apr 2009 - 06:17

Try it with 1 dollar bills, wassat

debtor | 6 Apr 2009 - 04:49

let's face it, freedom is history. we and our children are all slaves to the robber baron class now. how's your credit rating? feudalism lives on.

angry

G | 4 Apr 2009 - 03:54

So this is the amount that the G20 is going to use to bail out the recession, that they knew about before it happened?!?

G | 4 Apr 2009 - 03:52

So this is the amount that the G20 is going to use to bail out the recession, that they knew about before it happened?!?

hai | 3 Apr 2009 - 12:41

lol

Ric | 3 Apr 2009 - 03:40

I would love to forward this info to various elected officials including the president. Unfortunately, their website does not allow for this sort of "mailing". Any suggestions as to how to send them this vivid illustration?????

AKFishrgirl | 2 Apr 2009 - 13:28

And this is how much the gov't just printed with no solid backing (i.e. gold or silver) to pay of an IOU to themselves. Now how much is our dollar worth?

mesmerX | 1 Apr 2009 - 21:34

Bruce, you're incorrect.

1 pallet is $100 million ($100,000,000).

So $1 trillion / $100 million = 10,000 pallets.

So that's 50 pallets across AND 100 pallets depth (exactly as per drawing). 50x100=5000 pallets.

Then you double stack them (as per drawing) and you get 10,000 pallets.

Hence depiction is 100% CORRECT. wink

If you were to count those pallets by hand, you'll get exactly 10,000. Face it. Even common sense tells it, since 10,000 is such a huge number. Equating to $1 trillion.

«Your last graphic is incorrect. If $1 billion is ten pallets, $1 trillion would be 10,000 pallets. This is a stack 100 (50x2) pallets wide by 100 (50x2) deep. The stack in the graphic is 50 wide, but the depth is 100-200 deep. - Bruce»

Bruce | 1 Apr 2009 - 10:26

Your last graphic is incorrect. If $1 billion is ten pallets, $1 trillion would be 10,000 pallets. This is a stack 100 (50x2) pallets wide by 100 (50x2) deep. The stack in the graphic is 50 wide, but the depth is 100-200 deep.

Megan | 30 Mar 2009 - 10:42

My jaw literally dropped. That's insane.

cristine | secret regret | 29 Mar 2009 - 14:35

oooooohh...o_0
wtf!
great!

Karen Leslie | 28 Mar 2009 - 12:17

Thanks for this perspective since I haven't seen it represented like this and it does make $1 Trillion more understandable.

Regards,
Karen

Mike | 28 Mar 2009 - 05:59

damn.

* | 26 Mar 2009 - 14:18

cool !!!

. | 26 Mar 2009 - 10:44

SNAP

Kyla | 26 Mar 2009 - 07:02

Oh wow.

Navigation

Calendar

© 2009 DailyCognition.com | Contact/Recommend Article

| Feed Shark
The page you're accessing is not loading currently. Please point your mouse inside the window and press F5 or refresh.

What ONE TRILLION dollars looks like in dollar bills...

Comments: 104

Leave a comment