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I have seen several analogies referencing how to make sense of one million, one billion and one trillion. Some are pretty good, but I have what I think is a great way to visualize numbers like this.
When you hear the politicians talking in terms of TRILLIONS, you'll hopefully be able to make some kind of sense of the number. Most people have no clue.
Stick with me, I'll make sense of it.
A dollar bill is 0.0043 inches thick. If you take one million of those (1,000,000 x 0.0043/12) and divide by 12 to convert inches to feet, you get about 358 feet.
A football field is 300 feet long, and each end zone is 30 feet deep. So, if you take a football field and add both end zones, you can think of that as one million and the thickness of a dollar bill is ONE PART PER MILLION. That helps put parts per million in perspective as well. Any time you hear someone talking about so many parts per million, just think of the thickness of a dollar bill in comparison to a football field with both end zones. So one million is a football field.
One BILLION is 1,000 million. So, one billion is 1000 x 358 = 358,000 feet or about 68 statute miles. When you hear someone say "billion" just compare the thickness of a dollar bill to a town that's 68 miles away!
One TRILLION is 1,000 billion. So one trillion is dollar bills stacked 68,000 miles. Now, the earth is approximately 24,000 miles around at the equator. So, one trillion dollar bills would make a stack that would wrap itself around the planet nearly three times!
I don't know if you've seen this or not U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time but they show a total of UNFUNDED liabilities in this country to be nearly 108 TRILLION. I don't know if it's totally accurate.
So, since each trillion is a stack of dollar bills 68,000 miles long, the money it would take to pay off our UNFUNDED liabilities would make approximately 30 stacks of one dollar bills TO THE MOON! (assuming the moon is 240,000 miles - average distance)
Our government has promised 108 trillion to date. AND, "unfunded" means they have no clue where the money will come from to pay it.
Am I making any sense here??? What does this mean to you? I'd like to know what you think this means and how you think it will affect your life. Seriously, think about this.
From the movie Animal House: My advice for YOU is to drink heavily! lol :smx6:
When you hear the politicians talking in terms of TRILLIONS, you'll hopefully be able to make some kind of sense of the number. Most people have no clue.
Stick with me, I'll make sense of it.
A dollar bill is 0.0043 inches thick. If you take one million of those (1,000,000 x 0.0043/12) and divide by 12 to convert inches to feet, you get about 358 feet.
A football field is 300 feet long, and each end zone is 30 feet deep. So, if you take a football field and add both end zones, you can think of that as one million and the thickness of a dollar bill is ONE PART PER MILLION. That helps put parts per million in perspective as well. Any time you hear someone talking about so many parts per million, just think of the thickness of a dollar bill in comparison to a football field with both end zones. So one million is a football field.
One BILLION is 1,000 million. So, one billion is 1000 x 358 = 358,000 feet or about 68 statute miles. When you hear someone say "billion" just compare the thickness of a dollar bill to a town that's 68 miles away!
One TRILLION is 1,000 billion. So one trillion is dollar bills stacked 68,000 miles. Now, the earth is approximately 24,000 miles around at the equator. So, one trillion dollar bills would make a stack that would wrap itself around the planet nearly three times!
I don't know if you've seen this or not U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time but they show a total of UNFUNDED liabilities in this country to be nearly 108 TRILLION. I don't know if it's totally accurate.
So, since each trillion is a stack of dollar bills 68,000 miles long, the money it would take to pay off our UNFUNDED liabilities would make approximately 30 stacks of one dollar bills TO THE MOON! (assuming the moon is 240,000 miles - average distance)
Our government has promised 108 trillion to date. AND, "unfunded" means they have no clue where the money will come from to pay it.
Am I making any sense here??? What does this mean to you? I'd like to know what you think this means and how you think it will affect your life. Seriously, think about this.
From the movie Animal House: My advice for YOU is to drink heavily! lol :smx6:
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