How much is a trillion?

I remember a picture we had seen in our school days "A Mllion Pound Note", starring Gregory Peck.
Two elderly brothers, wealthy English gentlemen, establish a wager. They entrust a million-pound banknote to a penniless American, to see if he can live for a month purely on the good will which the note will engender, without ever having to cash it.
Gregory Peck, just happened to be that man who received the note.
We are nowadays hearing the figure trillion being tossed around with regard to the package being given to the banks by the US government.
John Kingsley sends the following to give you an idea of the size of the figure.

"Pocket change?" I think not.

What is exactly is one TRILLION dollars?

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?

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


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 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...



(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

To give you another perspective.
If you wanted to count to 1 trillion, how long would it take you.
Suppose you counted 1-2-3-4-5...at the rate of 5 digits per sec, which I consider very fast, and you counted continuously for 24 hrs, 365 days a year, it would take you 6342 years counting upto one trillion.
Just think, if Aristotle had started counting immediately after he was born, he would still be counting and reached only half-way.

Radheshyam