Hardly a day goes by without hearing big numbers, numbers that despite their familiarity – after all, you can’t go too many days without hearing the worn-out phrase, “…that’s billion with a B…” – are practically abstract concepts. The human mind can only comprehend so much. This week’s Augusta Medical Examiner cover story deals with lots of amazing numbers that are connected to healthcare and the human body. To help visualize what millions, billions and trillions actually mean, here are some pictures of hundred-dollar bills. Stacks of them. Big stacks. Bigger stacks. Kind of surprising stacks. Did you know, for instance, that a million dollars (in hundreds) would fit in a shopping bag? Maybe you did, but it’s unlikely you realized what a trillion looks like, even if it’s illustrated in 6-inch long pieces of paper:
$10,000 will fit in your shirt pocket
You could carry this million in a shopping bag.
one hundred million dollars
One billion dollars
One trillion dollars. Those pallets are stacked two-high. Note our observer in the lower left corner.
another perspective on the size of 1 trillion dollars