A million, a billion, and a trillion walk into a bar…
First, some credit. The article that provoked this post can be found here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19343.html
The article explores the fact that it is conceptually difficult for any human brain to discern the difference between large sums such as a million, a billion, and a trillion. I’m always up for a challenge, so here goes:
One million pennies (in addition to being $10,000) would make a coin roll just under a mile long or about the distance from our offices to go watch the Cats play at Rupp Arena.
One billion pennies would make a coin roll 870 miles long, enough to get from Lexington to just short of Dallas, TX (in addition to making you close to $10 million richer)
One trillion pennies is $10 billion dollars, never mind the distance. Ok, if you are curious, that is a coin roll from Lexington around the Earth back to Lexington 25 times.
You’ll never look at a penny the same again.
