trillion

This feature is intended to give you a visual image of what a trillion dollars looks like. . .

     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, slightly 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 serious shopping.

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.

     Go ahead...

     Scroll down...

     Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...$1,000,000,000,000.

(There is a person standing in the lower left corner. Notice that those pallets are double stacked.)

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"...this many pallets of $100 bills is what they're talking about. n