Put It In Perspective

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Seacowboys, May 27, 2010.


  1. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    Thirteen Trillion Dollars in $100.00 bills

    $4,608,000 per cubic ft.
    $17,694,720,000 per rail road box-car=

    734.68 Box-cars full of $100 bills or a train nominally 11.2 miles long. Anyone that has ever been stuck in traffic by a train must really appreciate this little bit of math.
     
  2. Clyde

    Clyde Jet Set Tourer Administrator Founding Member

    So? If our government had to account like a corporation, accounting rules they changed for the .gov benefit, the train would be over 1,288 miles long and over 84,500 cars long.

    I wounded how many engines it would take to pull that bitch!
     
  3. fortunateson

    fortunateson I hate Illinois Nazis!

    Except that they're all just bits in a database.
    Only a fraction of the money that they "print" is actually printed.
    The ultimate in manipulation and control.
     
  4. CrufflerJJ

    CrufflerJJ Monkey++

    I wonder about the boxcar volume used in the calculations above. It apparently uses a volume of 3840 cu ft per boxcar. This is actually less than the ~4100 cu ft of a standard 53 foot dry goods truck trailer.

    CSX's website gives volumes for their normal boxcars.

    Welcome to CSX.com: Customers - Typical Boxcar Dimensions

    The standard 50 foot, 70 ton boxcar carries about 5240 cu ft. If these were used, it would "only" require 538 boxcars.

    Don't you feel better now?[lolol]

    WAIT...There's MORE! If you look at the weight carrying capacity of boxcars, 538 of them could not carry the weight of 13 trillion $$$.

    The USeless Treasury says that each bill weighs "about one gram."

    13 trillion dollars in $100 bills would be 130000000000 bills, or the same number of grams. Dividing that by 453.6 grams/lb gives you a weight of 286596119.9 lbs. Each standard boxcar can only carry 158000 lbs. This means that you'd need ~1814 boxcars, not 734 or 538.

    Each car has an exterior length of 55 foot, 5" (not sure if this includes the length of any couplings on front & back). Multiplying that by 1814 gives you a total length of about 1000526 feet. Divide by 5280 feet per mile gives you a total length (plus engine & caboose, but I'll be generous & ignore them for now) of 19+ miles.

    Isn't math fun?
     
  5. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Taking a normal "Unit train" of 100 cars, now you have 19 trains, each requiring two or three locomotives, somewhat depending. It is more often three locis that I've seen. Cabooses are no longer required on US rail lines. Pulling a number from my ____, each loci is 100 feet, so add 200 feet per train, another 1800 feet to the total length. We are now looking at 20 miles ---.

    Hm. What if they were one dollar bills instead of 100s?
     
  6. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    Now picture the train being pulled by an old coal burner locomotive, with that grinning fool in the Whitehouse in the cab, shoveling those trillions of fiat-dollars into the firebox of the runaway behemoth........ :rolleyes:
     
  7. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    one dollar bills.... well then the trains would span the country from north to south ... or 2000 miles of it east to west .... yup math is fun
     
  8. CrufflerJJ

    CrufflerJJ Monkey++

    Well, at least the imitation money would be put to good use!
     
  9. Byte

    Byte Monkey+++

    And $4.6m takes up ~1.8cf so that messes up the math too! I just loved geometry! [boozingbuddies]

    Byte [stirpot]
     
  10. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html
    What does one TRILLION dollars look like?
    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? 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, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.
    [​IMG]




    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.
    [​IMG]





    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.
    [​IMG]








    While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet...
    [​IMG]








    And $1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere...
    [​IMG]





    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.
    Go ahead...
    Scroll down...
    Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...
    [​IMG]
    Notice those pallets are double stacked.
    ...and remember those are $100 bills.
    So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.
    <small>* Step by step calculations & dimensions are next post for those who may be interested.</small>
     
  11. melbo

    melbo Hunter Gatherer Administrator Founding Member

    What does one TRILLION dollars look like?
    (calculations & dimensions)


    From http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/calculations.html
    After receiving a few emails suggesting my trillion dollar calculations may be in error, I decided to put up this page showing the calculations step by step.
    But before we do, there are two things I should make perfectly clear....
    1) We are using $100 dollar bills, not $1 bills.
    2) We are using the following definitions of million, billion and trillion...
    <table class="regtext" style="margin-left: 40px;" cellpadding="3"> <tbody><tr><td align="center">MILLION</td> <td>=</td> <td>1,000,000</td> </tr><tr><td align="center">BILLION</td> <td>=</td> <td>1,000,000,000</td> </tr><tr><td align="center">TRILLION</td> <td>=</td> <td>1,000,000,000,000</td> </tr></tbody></table> I realize that some people in some places may have been taught differently and that there is the "short scale" and "long scale" definitions of these numbers. But without getting into the merits, preference or usage of one naming system over another, let's just be clear that the above is the system I'm using. And more importantly, when the U.S. government is talking about a trillion dollars, that is the system they are using.
    With that out of the way, let's get to our calculations.
    We'll start with one packet...
    [​IMG]
    (I've removed the graphics for clarity)
    This packet is a stack of one hundred $100 dollar bills. It's about 6" by 2-1/2" by 0.43" high.
    100 x $100 = $10,000
    <hr class="ltdivide"> Next we'll arrange 10 packets on the ground like so...
    [​IMG]
    10 x $10,000 = $100,000
    <hr class="ltdivide"> If we increase it to 10 layers high, we get $1,000,000 (one million dollars)...
    [​IMG]
    10 x $100,000 = $1,000,000
    The pile is 12" wide (2 x 6"), 12.5" deep (5 x 2.5") and 4.3" high (10 x .43").
    <hr class="ltdivide"> Now we'll look at a pallet. We'll start with one layer, 7 packets wide by 16 packets deep, with each packet being $10,000.
    [​IMG]
    7 x 16 = 112 packets per layer
    112 x $10,000 = $1,120,000 per layer
    <hr class="ltdivide"> Increase that to 90 layers and you have a stack 38.7" tall (plus 4" for the pallet) that is worth a little over $100,000,000 (one hundred million dollars)
    [​IMG]
    90 x $1,120,000 = $100,800,000
    For the sake of simplicty, we'll round this down and consider a pallet to be exactly $100,000,000 (one hundred million dollars). We'll just put put the extra $800,000 aside and have ourselves a party. With all this money sloshing around, who's gonna miss it?
    <hr class="ltdivide"> Next, ten pallets of $100 million are $1 billion...
    [​IMG]
    10 x $100,000,000 = $1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars)
    Here is where we may start running into problems. In some parts of the world, this may be referred to as a "thousand million" (or "milliard") rather than a billion.
    Below is a table showing the different terminology. Which one you use may depend on where you live. More on this at Wikipedia if you're interested.
    <table class="regtext" style="margin-left: 40px;"> <tbody><tr><td>
    </td><td>Short Scale </td><td>
    </td><td>Long Scale </td><td>
    </td><td>
    </td></tr> <tr><td>
    </td><td>one </td><td>
    </td><td>one </td><td>
    </td><td>1 </td></tr> <tr><td>
    </td><td>thousand </td><td>
    </td><td>thousand </td><td>
    </td><td>1,000 </td></tr> <tr><td>
    </td><td>million </td><td>
    </td><td>million </td><td>
    </td><td>1,000,000 </td></tr> <tr><td>
    </td><td>billion </td><td>
    </td><td>thousand million (or milliard) </td><td>
    </td><td>1,000,000,000 </td></tr> <tr><td>
    </td><td>trillion </td><td>
    </td><td>billion </td><td>
    </td><td>1,000,000,000,000 </td></tr> <tr><td>
    </td><td>quadrillion </td><td>
    </td><td>thousand billion (or billiard) </td><td>
    </td><td>1,000,000,000,000,000 </td></tr> <tr><td>
    </td><td>quintillion </td><td>
    </td><td>trillion </td><td>
    </td><td>1,000,000,000,000,000,000 </td></tr> <tr><td>
    </td><td>sextillion </td><td>
    </td><td>thousand trillion (or trilliard) </td><td>
    </td><td>1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 </td></tr> </tbody></table> At any rate, for our purposes here, we're at one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000).
    <hr class="ltdivide"> Next, a row of 50 double-stacked pallets (50 x 2 = 100 pallets total).
    [​IMG]
    100 x $100,000,000/pallet = $10,000,000,000 (ten billion dollars)
    <hr class="ltdivide"> Multiply that by 100 rows....
    [​IMG]
    100 rows x $10,000,000,000 = $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion dollars)
    (Notice the little guy at the bottom left corner.)
    <hr class="ltdivide"> Here's another view oriented a little more to the front...
    [​IMG]
    So, one hundred rows x 100 pallets per row is 10,000 pallets.
    That's a LOT of $100 bills!
    And hopefully that puts to rest any notions of "errors".
    You know, it occurs to me.... if you were the guy stacking all those pallets and you swiped one single bill from the top of each pallet, after you were done you'd have yourself a cool $million.
    <hr class="ltdivide"> |---------Dimensions---------|

    Each individual pallet is 42" wide by 40" deep. The height of the bills is 38.7". Add 4" for a pallet and the total height of one pallet of bills is 42.7". In the field of pallets above, the pallets are spaced 12" apart.
    The field is 50 pallets x 100 pallets by 2 pallets high, so...
    width = (50 x 42") + (49 x 12") = 2100" + 588" = 2688" = 224 ft
    depth = (100 x 40") + (99 x 12") = 4000" + 1188" = 5188" = 432.33ft
    height = 2 x 42.7" = 85.4" = just a little over 7ft high
    So our field of pallets is roughly 224ft x 432ft x 7ft high.
    At 96,768 square feet, it's about 2.2 acres and well over the size of a football field.
     
  12. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    That would be how many bytes electronically when it goes into your bank? (Yeah, chances are slim they'll ever be in your safe deposit box. But Bernie Madoff made it seem simple, eh?.)
     
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