Written out, a trillion is a one followed by 12 zeros, or 1,000,000,000,000. That's a million times one million, or a thousand times one billion. Multiply that times three and you have 3 trillion.
Counting to 3 trillion at a rate of one number a second would take almost 95,000 years.
One would have to circumvent the globe 120 million times to travel 3 trillion miles. Similarly, that would be some 17,000 round trips to the sun. The universe, 15 billion years old at the outside, would need another 200 such lifetimes to reach 3 trillion years.
A trillion is a figure more commonly used when talking about outer space. A light year, the distance that light travels in a vacuum in a year, is about 6 trillion miles.
There are about 6.8 billion people in the world, meaning that every living person would get $441 if $3 trillion was divided up. If the money was split among the 300 million Americans, everyone would take home $10,000.
A person given $1 million a year to spend would need 3 million years to blow $3 trillion.
But mostly...
Three trillion dollars is about what the federal government will spend this coming year for domestic and defense programs and benefit entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, according to President Bush's latest federal budget proposal Monday. ($3.1 trillion, actually).
Source: Associated Press
UPDATE: Want to see what a trillion dollars LOOKS like? Click here.
UPDATE #2: Just heard this fact: 1 trillion seconds is equal to 32,000 years.
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Listening to Ron Paul is kind of like reading a history textbook, which I realize could make him sound boring or antiquated, but, believe me, this one's not.
It's refreshing, like hearing history re-told for our current context. When I hear Dr. Paul speak, suddenly the ideas our American forefathers believed in seem to make sense again. Like, for example, the Constitution was actually a really good idea, and very well written. And while we're on it, why haven't we heard much about it in the past 70 years?
If you'd like to catch the fire about why Ron Paul is really an incredible presidential candidate, check out this video:
Something I learned about Ron Paul from this video: he loves roundabouts.
There are cities that have intentionally replaced stop lights with roundabouts. The idea is that with stoplights, people become dependent on something else (e.g. the stoplight) to tell them when it's safe to go or when they need to stop. This can be good, but unfortunately, stoplights also allow them to be much less careful, considerate, or even conscious of what the heck they're doing.
By installing roundabouts, the city takes the power from the stoplight and puts it back in the hands of the people. Now, the onus is on each individual to pay attention to what they're doing. In a roundabout, people need to look around, constantly be courteous, and pay attention to the other drivers.
It's probably time we start paying attention again.
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Now, you may not be as big of a dork as I am, or subscribe to Dictionary.com's Word of the Day (yeah, so!?), but you too can improve your vocabulary -- and help the world at the same time!
Enjoy!
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