What Does A
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 . . .
One Quadrillion . . .
One Quintillion . . .
How much is that?
One Penny
• Let’s start with a penny
• Probably have one in your pocket.

Value:
1¢

Width:
3/4 of an inch

Height:
3/4 of an inch

Thickness:
1/16 of an inch

Weight:
1/10 of an ounce

Area:
0.5625 square inches
Sixteen Pennies



•
•
•
•
•
•
To get to big numbers, you have to
start small
Lay sixteen pennies in a line and you
have one foot
Stack them and you have an inch
Value:
Width:
Height stacked:
Thickness:
inch)
Weight:
Area (laid flat):
16¢
12 inches, (one foot)
1 inch
0.0625 inches, (1/16 of an
1.6 ounces
9 square inches
One Thousand Pennies
1,000 pennies = [5 pennies wide x
5 pennies high x 40 pennies tall]

Value:
$10.00

Width:
3.75 inches

Height:
3.75 inches

Thickness:
2.5 inches

Weight:
100 ounces, (6.25 pounds)

Height stacked:
62.4 inches, (5.2 feet)

Area (laid flat):
562.5 square inches
3.9 square feet
Fifty Thousand Pennies
49,152 Pennies
[16w x 16h x 192 tall] - one cubic foot.

Value:
$491.52

Width:
12 inches, (one foot)

Height:
12 inches, (one foot)

Thickness:
12 inches, (one foot)

Weight:
4,915.2 ounces, (307.2 pounds)

Height stacked:
3,072 inches, (256 feet)

Area (laid flat):
192 square feet
100,000 Pennies
98,304 Pennies
two cubic feet

Value:
$983.04

Width:
24 inches, (two feet)

Height:
12 inches, (one foot)

Thickness:
12 inches, (one foot)

Weight:
614.4 pounds

Height stacked:
512 feet

Area (laid flat):
384 square feet
One Million Pennies
1,003,776 Pennies
[Wall 5’x4’x1’ thick with a 9”x9”x9” cube]

Value:
$10,037.76

Width:
Four feet

Height:
Five feet

Thickness:
12 inches, (one foot)

Weight:
6273.6 pounds (3.14 tons)

Height stacked:
5,228 feet ( 0.99 Miles )

Area (laid flat):
3,921 square feet
Ten Million Pennies
10,017,024
[A cube 6 x 6 x 6 feet]

Value:
$100,170.24

Width:
Six feet

Height:
Six feet

Thickness:
Six feet

Weight:
31.3 tons

Height stacked:
9.88 Miles

Area (laid flat):
39,129 square feet (0.9 acres)
100 Million Pennies
100,016,640
[2 cubes, 1-12x12x12 feet, 1-7x7x7 feet]

Value:
$1,000,166.40

Width:
12 feet (7 feet)

Height:
12 feet (7 feet)

Thickness:
12 feet (7 feet)

Height stacked:
999 Miles

Area (laid flat):
390,690 square feet (9 acres)

Total weight:
312.5 tons
(adult Blue Whale weighs less than 150 tons)
Ten Million Pennies
1,000,018,176
[Five school buses]

Value:
$10,000,181.76

Width:
45 feet

Height:
11 feet

Thickness:
41 feet total

Weight:
3,125 tons

height stacked:
987 Miles

Area (laid flat):
3,906,321 square feet (89.7 acres)
Ten Billion Pennies
10,000,023,552
[Fifty school buses]

Value:
$100,000,235.52

Width:
90 feet

Height:
11 feet

Thickness:
205 feet

Total weight:
31,250 tons

Height stacked:
9,864 Miles

Area (laid flat):
897 acres

World's population - six billion people (2 per person)

US mint makes this many pennies per year
100 Billion Pennies
100,017,659,336
[One cube measuring 127 x 127 x 127 feet]

Value:
$1,000,176,593.36

Width:
126.72 feet

Height:
126.72 feet

Thickness:
126.72 feet

Total weight:
312,555.2 tons

Height stacked:
98,660 Miles

Area (laid flat):
8,969 acres

If laid out like a carpet, covers 14 square miles

Manhattan Island measures 22 square miles

Bulverde measures 10 square miles.
200 Billion Pennies
200,035,318,672
[Two cubes, each 127 x 127 x 127 feet]

Value:
$2,000,353,186.72

Width:
253.44 feet

Height:
126.72 feet

Thickness:
126.72 feet

Total weight:
625,110.4 tons

Height stacked:
197,320 Miles

Area (laid flat):
17,938 acres

US Mint estimates about 200 billion in circulation

First penny was minted in 1787; 300 billion pennies have
been minted in the United States.
One Trillion Pennies
1,000,000,016,640
[One cube measuring 273 x 273 x 273 feet]

Value:
$10,000,000,166.40

Width:
273 feet

Height:
273 feet

Thickness:
273 feet

Total weight:
3,125,000 tons

Height stacked:
986,426 Miles

Area (laid flat):
89,675.2 acres
One Trillion Pennies
1,000,000,016,640
[One cube measuring 273 x 273 x 273 feet]

Far right - the same football field

Moving left (to scale)
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Lincoln Memorial (on the back of the penny)
Washington Monument (555 feet tall)
Our cube of one trillion pennies
Empire State Building (1,250 feet tall)
Sears Tower (1,450 feet tall).
Fill the Empire State Building
1,818,624,000,000

New York's Empire State Building contains 37 million
cubic feet of space

One cubic foot of pennies = 49,152 total

37,000,000 x 49,152 = 1,818,624,000,000 pennies

Value:$18,186,240,000.00

Total weight:

Height stacked: 1,793,939 Miles

Area (laid flat): 163,085 acres
5,683,200 tons
Fill Sears Tower
2,623,684,608,000

Chicago's Sears Tower = 53.4 million cubic feet of space

One cubic foot = 49,152 pennies

53,379,000 x 49,152 = 2,623,684,608,000 pennies

Value:$26,236,846,080.00

Total weight:

Height stacked: 2,588,073 Miles

Area (laid flat): 235,279.3 acres
8,199,014 tons
One Quadrillion Pennies
1,000,067,088,384,000
[One cube 2,730 x 2,730 x 2,730 feet]

Value:
$10,000,670,883,840.00

Width:
2,730 feet

Height:
2,730 feet

Thickness:
2,730 feet

Total weight:
3,125,000,000 tons

Height stacked:
986,426,768 Miles

Area (laid flat):
89,675,161 acres

Cube is a half-mile wide and weighs three billion tons.
One Quintillion Pennies
1,000,067,088,384,000,000
[1 cube 27,300 x 27,300 x 27,300 feet]

Value:
$10,000,670,883,840,000.00

Width:
27,300 feet

Height:
27,300 feet

Thickness:
27,300 feet total

Weight:
3,125,000,000,000 tons

Height stacked:
986,426,767,677 miles

Area (laid flat):
89,675,160,698 acres

As carpet, cover the surface of the earth – twice

Mt. Everest (29,000 ft.) is only 1,700 feet taller.
One Google
A Very Big Number (1036)
duotrigintillion =
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000
googol = 10 duotrigintillion
One google (1 & 100 zeros) =
10,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000, 000,000
What Does A
Trillion Dollars
Look Like?
A whole bunch