whats a trillion ?

[SidfromSydney]

To the average person, a number that big probably doesn't mean much. At some point long before the hundred-billion-dollar mark, large numbers simply become figures on the page, well beyond human scale and intuitive understanding. And yet as discussion about the economy and the impressive numbers that come along with it continue to dominate the news, it may be more important than ever to try to understand. Is a $700 billion financial-industry bailout a lot? Is a $775 billion economic-stimulus package enough? (See the worst business deals of 2008.)

Unfortunately, our puny human brains aren't particularly up to the task. Go back thousands of years and think about the simpler times of human existence. "We had a few friends; we had to be scared of a few animals. A trillion didn't come up very often," says Temple University mathematician John Allen Paulos, whose book Innumeracy addresses the topic. "There is a sense that when numbers are too big or too small, the brain just shuts off," says Colin Camerer, a professor of behavioral economics at the California Institute of Technology. "People either don't think about it at all or there is fear, an exaggerated reaction."

The genius of our numbering system is that we can signify massive quantities in short spaces. One billion takes no longer to write than one million does, points out Andrew Dilnot, an economist at Oxford University and author of The Numbers Game.

But that similarity trips us up when it comes time to imagine how those figures translate to the real world, where three more zeros make all the difference. "My favorite way to think of it is in terms of seconds," says David Schwartz, a children's book author whose How Much Is a Million? tries to wrap young minds around the concept. "One million seconds comes out to be about 11½ days. A billion seconds is 32 years. And a trillion seconds is 32,000 years.

When trying to comprehend a trillion-dollar deficit, you might calculate how much money that represents per person in the U.S. One trillion dollars divided by 300 million Americans comes out to $3,333. Then you search for a useful comparison. A convenient — though perhaps unsettling — comparison is to the amount of credit-card debt carried by the average person in this country. That figure is $3,245. "So a good way of thinking about government debt financing is that it's similar to what the average person is doing," says Camerer.

In The Numbers Game, Dilnot and his co-author, journalist
 Michael Blastland, suggest dividing government spending by the number of citizens and the number of weeks in a year. A $700 billion bailout thereby translates into $45 per week for each American man, woman and child. Going one step further, it comes out to $6 a day.

this is a cut and paste job, thought people might be interested

[Coyotes]

yawnnnnnnnnnnnn, morning what u say again? and this is about philippines or dumaguete in what way?

now if you'd found a good manicurist... i'd be wide awake now! lol

[spook12]

Can anybody tell me what this has to do with banannas in New York?????????

[Coyotes]

i don't think bananas has 2 nn's, lol but i'm sure sid can debate it! sorry sid, just a very very very odd post

[Coyotes]

right i actually read it now, and ok it is kind of intresting, but!!

is that an american trillion or an english one?

[Rhoody]

Originally Posted by Coyotes

right i actually read it now, and ok it is kind of intresting, but!!

is that an american trillion or an english one?

... sure baNaNas has 2 N ...

what was the topic ? I am too lazy to read this important page-fillers, can somebody write a 2 sentence summary?

[Coyotes]

i meant as in banannas = 2 nns, is that easier for you? are we back on topic yet? and where do bananas cost a trillion? i bet there meats expensive

[Rhoody]

ahhh you ment bannannas.... talking about bannannas, some years ago we had a bannanna-compass in germany. you had to lay a bannanna on the berlin wall and the side which had a bite is east...

[Coyotes]

lol so is east magnetic or just hungry, that as in could eat a horse not the place

[Kenny]

When I first read this I thought I was supposed to be be offended but having read it twice I think Sid is just concerned about the financial well-being of all us yanks. Thanks for your concern. More importantly how the hell do you spell bannannas?
Kenny