How much is the trillion dollars?

We are often hearing word trillion. We often hear from the news that US national debt is now exceeding $15 trillion or all the US liabilities are now close to $100 trillion. But, here is the question. How much and how big is the trillion dollars? Honestly, I can't imagine how big is the number is... But, I found the interesting information of how to quantify the trillion. In this blog, I would like to share and show you how big is the trillion dollars in several different angles.

Numbers

People often see trillion in numerical numbers but let's compare with other numbers:

Thousand = 1,000

Million = 1,000,000

Billion = 1,000,000,000

Trillion = 1,000,000,000,000

From this, trillion seems to be very big number but I am guessing many people are not grasping how big is this number. So, let's calculate how long does it take to count each denomination for $1 per second.

How long does it take to finish counting

Thousand dollars = 1000 second = 16.67 min

Million dollars = Million Second = 16,666.67 min = 277.78 hours = 11.5 days

Billion dollars = Billion Second = 16666666.7 min = 277777.8 Hours = 31.7 years

Trillion dollars = Trillion second = 16666666667 min = 277777778 Hours = 31709 years

By $1 / second, it will take 31,709 years to finally finish counting trillion dollars. Wow, you have to be pretty healthy and lively in order to finish counting trillion dollars... Anyway, let's take a look at distance perspective.

How much distance stack of trillion dollars take us?

I found interesting video clip explaining about this concept and I was certainly facinated by it so I would like to share how much distance stack of each denomination take us if we use stack of thousand dollar bills.

Million dollars = 4 inch

Billion dollars = 358 feet high = middle of high rise building

Trillion dollars = 67.9 miles high = Approximate distance from Springfield MA to Albany NY

This is staggering... This is how big trillion dollar is. As I mentioned before, it took 300 years to reach first $1 trillion in national debt in 1974. This trillion dollars covers whole states, cities and landmarks we can possibly see right now from every building, bridge and road etc. Do you want to guess how long did it take to reach last trillion dollars?