One Penny

1

One penny. Most people in North America have seen themand you probably have one in your pocket right now.

Using this small metal disk, with a size and weight familiarto almost everyone, let's take the next step.

value 1¢, (one cent)

width 0.75 inches, (3/4 of an inch)

height 0.75 inches, (3/4 of an inch)

thickness 0.0625 inches, (1/16 of an inch)

weight 0.1 ounces, (1/10 of an ounce)

area 0.5625 square inches

How about sixteen? >>

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Sixteen Pennies

or

16

Every journey begins with a single step. So, to get to big numbers, youhave to start small. Lay sixteen pennies in a line and you have one foot, stackthem and you have an inch. Okay, so much for the small numbers - let's move up.

value 16¢, (sixteen cents)

width (side-by-side) 12 inches, (one foot)

height (stacked) 1 inch

thickness 0.0625 inches, (1/16 of an inch)

weight 1.6 ounces

area (laid flat) 9 square inches

Let's see a Thousand >>

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The MegaPenny Projectby kokogiak media

Visualizing huge numbers can be very difficult. People regularly talk about millions ofmiles, billions of bytes, or trillions of dollars, yet it's still hard to grasp just how much a"billion" really is. The MegaPenny Project aims to help by taking one small everyday item,the U.S. penny, and building on that to answer the question: "What would a billion (or atrillion) pennies look like?"

All the following pages have tables at the bottom, listing things such as the value of thepennies, size of the pile, weight, and area (if laid flat). All weights and measurements areU.S. standards, not metric.

It's best to step through the project starting from the beginning, but if you'd like to justjump in, links are available below.

Enter the MegaPenny Project

Pages, in order:• One penny• Sixteen pennies• One Thousand pennies• Fifty Thousand pennies• One Hundred Thousand pennies• One Million pennies• Ten Million pennies• One Hundred Million pennies• One Billion pennies• Ten Billion pennies• One Hundred Billion pennies• Pennies Currently in circulation• One Trillion pennies• One Trillion (part II)• Empire State Building• Sears Tower• One Quadrillion pennies• One Quintillion pennies• Index, Table and Links• MegaMoo - a special bonus section

Various Awards

02.07.2002(again)

Yediot Aharonot04.15.2001

03.24.2001

startsiden.no 03.23.01 Guardian UK Web Watch 03.22.01 03.14.2001

One Thousand Pennies

1,000[5 pennies wide x 5 pennies high x 40 pennies tall]

A thousand pennies is only $10.00 worth of pennies, yet it weighs oversix pounds. Now let's put together a cubic foot made of these copper (3%)and zinc (97%) coins.

value $10.00, (Ten dollars and no cents)

width 3.75 inches

height 3.75 inches

thickness 2.5 inches

weight 100 ounces, (6.25 pounds)

height stacked 62.4 inches, (5.2 feet)

area (laid flat) 562.5 square inches (3.9 square feet)

Let's build a 12-inch cube >>

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Fifty Thousand Pennies

49,152Forty-nine thousand one hundred and fifty-two Pennies

[16w x 16h x 192 tall] - one cubic foot.

Three hundred pounds of pennies. Remember the stack of 16 pennies?It was one inch tall. Well, take 12 of those and stack them and you'll havea one-foot-tall stack. The cube above is made up of 256 of those one-footstacks, making one cubic foot of pennies.

Remember this cube, since it will be the building block for all upcomingpenny-structures you see in these pages. Now let's double it.

value $491.52(Four hundred ninety-one dollars and fifty-twocents)

width 12 inches, (one foot)

height 12 inches, (one foot)

thickness 12 inches, (one foot)

weight 4,915.2 ounces, (307.2 pounds)

height stacked 3,072 inches, (256 feet)

area (laid flat) 192 square feet

OK, now a Hundred Thousand Pennies >>

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One Hundred Thousand Pennies

98,304Ninety-eight thousand three hundred and four Pennies

[ Two cubic feet ]

Doubling our 50,000 pennies to 100,000, we now have two one-foot cubes.Given, this wasn't a big jump, but now we're going to start climbing thenumerical ladder by powers of ten. Ever wonder what a million pennieswould look like?

value $983.04(Nine hundred eighty-three dollars and four cents)

width 24 inches, (two feet)

height 12 inches, (one foot)

thickness 12 inches, (one foot)

weight 614.4 pounds

height stacked 512 feet

area (laid flat) 384 square feet

One Million... >>

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One Million Pennies

1,003,776One million, three thousand, seven hundred and seventy-six Pennies[ A wall five by four by one feet thick with a 9-inch cube stepstool ]

Say hello to our friend Graham. Now that the pennies have really begun to pile up,he'll be standing in for scale. Graham is about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and he weighsabout 180 pounds, or about 35 times less than the 1 million pennies stacked besidehim. Next step, Ten million.

value $10,037.76(Ten thousand, thirty-seven dollarsand seventy-six cents)

width Four feet

height Five feet

thickness 12 inches, (one foot)

weight 6273.6 pounds (3.14 tons)

height stacked 5,228 feet ( 0.99 Miles )

area (laid flat) 3,921 square feet

How about Ten Million? >>

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Ten Million Pennies

10,017,024Ten million, seventeen thousand and twenty-four Pennies

[ A cube 6 x 6 x 6 feet ]

Ten Million cents. If you laid these all out flat, side-by-side, like ahuge carpet of pennies, it would nearly cover one acre. Click herefor a look at 100,000,000 copper disks.

value $100,170.24(One hundred thousand, one hundredseventy dollars and twenty-four cents)

width Six feet

height Six feet

thickness Six feet

weight 31.3 tons

height stacked 9.88 Miles

area (laid flat) 39,129 square feet (0.9 acres)

One Hundred Million Pennies? >>

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One Hundred Million Pennies

100,016,640One hundred million, sixteen thousand, six hundred and forty Pennies

[ Two cubes, one 12x12x12 feet, the other 7x7x7 feet ]

Since these cubes are mostly dense metal, their weight is impressive. Onehundred million pennies weighs over 300 tons. For comparison, the largest livinganimal, the Blue Whale, weighs less than 150 tons as an adult.

When you hear talk of "billions" of something (dollars, miles, people, etc), it'shard to visualize. But up next, we have a visual for you - one billion pennies.

value $1,000,166.40(One million, one hundred sixty-sixdollars and forty cents)

width 12 feet (7 feet)

height 12 feet (7 feet)

thickness 12 feet (7 feet)

total weight 312.5 tons

height stacked 99 Miles

area (laid flat) 390,690 square feet (9 acres)

One Billion with a "B" >>

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One Billion Pennies

1,000,018,176One billion, eighteen thousand, one hundred and seventy-six Pennies

[ Five school buses. ]

Each of these blocks represents one 9x11x41 foot school bus - as seen below. If you wereto stack all these pennies in a single pile, one atop the other, the stack would reach nearly onethousand miles high. For comparison, note that the Space Shuttle typically orbits only 225 milesabove the Earth's surface.

Only in North America and the general scientific community is this number (1,000,000,000) calleda "billion". Most European countries call this number either "one thousand million" or,in some cases, a "milliard". Enough international confusion, let's move on to ten billion.

value $10,000,181.76(Ten million, one hundred eighty-onedollars and seventy-six cents)

width 45 feet

height 11 feet

thickness 41 feet

total weight 3,125 tons

height stacked 987 Miles

area (laid flat) 3,906,321 square feet (89.7 acres)

Next, Ten Billion Cents >>

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Ten Billion Pennies

10,000,023,552Ten billion, twenty-three thousand, five hundred and fifty-two Pennies

[ Fifty school buses (as defined previously). ]

Current estimates place the world's population at six billion people. The pile of penniesabove would then be nearly enough for two pennies for every person on Earth. The U.S.Mintcurrently manufactures about this many pennies every year.

In the image above, Graham and his ten billion coins are now standing on a standard U.S.football field (360 x 160 feet) for further scale. Next up, the hundred-billion cube.

value $100,000,235.52(One hundred million, two hundred thirty-fivedollars and fifty-two cents)

width 90 feet

height 11 feet

thickness 205 feet

total weight 31,250 tons

height stacked 9,864 Miles

area (laid flat) 897 acres

One Hundred Billion Pennies >>

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One Hundred Billion Pennies

100,017,659,336One hundred billion, seventeen million, six hundred fifty-nine thousand

three hundred and thirty-six Pennies[ One cube measuring 127 x 127 x 127 feet ]

If you took these hundred billion pennies and laid them out like a carpet, you could cover 14square miles. Compare that to Manhattan Island, which measures 22 square miles.

The cube you see above is made up of over 4.1 million stacks of 24,330 pennies. Now, weare getting close to the limits of existing pennies. How many pennies do you think arecurrently in circulation?

value $1,000,176,593.36(One billion, one hundred seventy-six thousandfive hundred and ninety-three dollars andthirty-six cents)

width 126.72 feet

height 126.72 feet

thickness 126.72 feet

total weight 312,555.2 tons

height stacked 98,660 Miles

area (laid flat) 8,969 acres

Total Pennies now in circulation >>

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Two Hundred Billion Pennies

200,035,318,672Two hundred billion, thirty-five million, three hundred eighteen thousand

six hundred and seventy-two Pennies[ Two cubes, each measuring 127 x 127 x 127 feet ]

Current estimates by the U.S. Mint place the number of pennies in circulation at around140 billion. Others have estimated as many as 200 billion currently circulating. Since thefirst penny was minted in 1787, until present-day, over 300 billion pennies have been mintedin the United States. So that leaves about 100 billion pennies that have been retired by theMint, lost down sewer drains, stored in jars, smashed by trains, or collected by numismatistsin the past 200 years.

Now that we have reached the limits of what actually exists, let's move beyond, and intothe Trillions.

value $2,000,353,186.72(Two billion, three hundred fifty-three thousandone hundred and eighty-six dollars andseventy-two cents)

width 253.44 feet

height 126.72 feet

thickness 126.72 feet

total weight 625,110.4 tons

height stacked 197,320 Miles

area (laid flat) 17,938 acres

Into the abstract, One Trillion Pennies >>

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One Trillion Pennies

1,000,000,016,640One trillion, sixteen thousand six hundred and forty Pennies

[ One cube measuring 273 x 273 x 273 feet ]

The same football field as the last two pages, set beside our new cube for scale. Noticeour friend Graham, still barely visible as a speck at lower left.

Let's look at this new cube a little more closely to get a better idea of its size.

value $10,000,000,166.40(Ten billion, one hundred andsixty-six dollars and forty cents)

width 273 feet

height 273 feet

thickness 273 feet

total weight 3,125,000 tons

height stacked 986,426 Miles

area (laid flat) 89,675.2 acres

Further Comparisons -- How a trillion pennies stacks up >>

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©copyright 2001 kokogiak media

One Trillion Pennies (part II)

1,000,000,016,640One trillion, sixteen thousand six hundred and forty Pennies

[ One cube measuring 273 x 273 x 273 feet ]

From right to left (to scale), we have the same old football field, then the LincolnMemorial (yes, the one pictured on the back of the penny), then the WashingtonMonument (555 feet tall), then our cube of one trillion pennies, then the EmpireState Building (1,250 feet tall), then the Sears Tower (1,450 feet tall).

So, now, the question you're dying to ask: How many Pennies would it take to fillthe Empire State Building?

value $10,000,000,166.40(Ten billion, one hundred andsixty-six dollars and forty cents)

width 273 feet

height 273 feet

thickness 273 feet

total weight 3,125,000 tons

height stacked 986,426 Miles

area (laid flat) 89,675.2 acres

Guess how many Pennies... >>

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The Empire State Building -- 1.8 Trillion Pennies

1,818,624,000,000One trillion, eight hundred eighteen billion, six hundred

twenty-four million Pennies

New york's Empire State Building contains 37 million cubic feet of space (minusthe antenna structure). Using our cubic foot of pennies (49,152 total), it's just a simplemultiplication problem - 37,000,000 x 49,152 = 1,818,624,000,000 pennies.

Now what about America's tallest structure, the Sears Tower?

value $18,186,240,000.00(Eighteen billion, one hundred eighty-six million, two hundred fortythousand dollars and zero cents)

total weight 5,683,200 tons

height stacked 1,793,939 Miles

area (laid flat) 163,085 acres

On to Chicago... >>

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The Sears Tower -- 2.6 Trillion Pennies

2,623,684,608,000Two trillion, six hundred twenty-three billion, sixhundred eighty-four million six hundred and eight

thousand Pennies

Chicago's Sears Tower occupies 53.4 million cubic feet of space. Usingour cubic foot of pennies (49,152 total), it's once again just anothermultiplication problem - 53,379,000 x 49,152 = 2,623,684,608,000 pennies.

Okay, enough with the buildings, let's take a giant leap forward. What woulda cube of one quadrillion pennies look like?

value $26,236,846,080.00(Twenty-six billion, two hundred thirty-sixmillion,eight hundred forty-six thousand andeighty dollars)

total weight 8,199,014 tons

height stacked 2,588,073 Miles

area (laid flat) 235,279.3 acres

Now a Quadrillion >>

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One Quadrillion Pennies

1,000,067,088,384,000One quadrillion, sixty-seven billion, eighty-eight million,

three hundred and eighty-four thousand Pennies[ One cube measuring 2,730 x 2,730 x 2,730 feet ]

Here we have the buildings we used for scale back at a trillion, but they're now a bit dwarfed by our new cube of pennies. This is a quadrillion, or a thousand times one trillion.This cube is roughly a half-mile wide and would weigh an astonishing three billion tons.

Okay, now for our final big number - one quintillion.

value $10,000,670,883,840.00(Ten trillion, six hundred seventy million, eight hundredeighty-three thousand, eight hundred and forty dollarsand zero cents)

width 2,730 feet

height 2,730 feet

thickness 2,730 feet

total weight 3,125,000,000 tons

height stacked 986,426,768 Miles

area (laid flat) 89,675,161 acres

Our final cube >>

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One Quintillion Pennies

1,000,067,088,384,000,000One quintillion, sixty-seven trillion, eighty-eight billion,

three hundred and eighty-four million Pennies[ One cube measuring 27,300 x 27,300 x 27,300 feet ]

Now we've stepped up another factor of 1,000. One quintillion pennies. This many pennies,if laid out flat like a carpet, would cover the surface of the earth - twice. If you look hard,you can still see the Sears Tower and other buildings at lower right. Another way to see it isto realize that Mt. Everest (29,000 ft.) is only 1,700 feet taller than this 27,300-foot cube.

This is as far as we will go. Three trillion tons of pennies is quite enough. To imaginelarger cubes, (stepping by factors of 1,000), just imagine cubes roughly ten times larger thanthe last one. For instance, one quintillion pennies makes the cube above - about 5 miles oneach side. If you step up to one sextillion, imagine a cube about 50 miles wide tall and thick.

Thanks for visiting the MegaPenny Project. You can find further related links and a table ofnamed "very big numbers" on our index page.

value $10,000,670,883,840,000.00(Ten quadrillion, six hundred seventy billion,eight hundred eighty-three million, eight hundredand forty thousand dollars and zero cents)

width 27,300 feet

height 27,300 feet

thickness 27,300 feet

total weight 3,125,000,000,000 tons

The MegaPenny ProjectHome

Kokogiak Media

• Don't miss the latest - special MegaPenny bonus section, MegaMoo.

Big Numbers Links:• Big Numbers (list one)• Big Numbers (list two)• Dots - from one to one million• Ask Dr. Math - big numbers

Pennies Links:• CopperCoins.com - a 'Web Resource for all US Copper Coin Collectors'.• The United States Mint• People who want to do away with pennies• People who want to keep pennies around• Smashed pennies• Would you rather be paid one million dollars today, - or - would you rather be paid one penny today (1¢), twice that tomorrow (2¢), twice that the next (4¢), etc. for 30 days? Find out here

Table of Very Big Numbers (from 1 to 10120)one 1

ten 10

hundred 100

thousand 1,000

million 1,000,000

billion 1,000,000,000

trillion 1,000,000,000,000

quadrillion 1,000,000,000,000,000

quintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000

sextillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

septillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

octillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

nonillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

decillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

undecillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

duodecillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

tredecillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

quattuordecillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

quindecillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

sexdecillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

septendecillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

octodecillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

novemdecillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

vigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

unvigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

duovigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

trevigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

quattuorvigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

quinvigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

sexvigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

septenvigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

octovigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

novemvigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

trigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

untrigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

duotrigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

googol (google) 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

tretrigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

quattuortrigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

quintrigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

sextrigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

septentrigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

octotrigintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

One Million Cows?Welcome to MegaMoo, a bonus section of the MegaPenny Project

1One Holstein Cow

Here's Harriet, our model cow. She's an average adult Holstein, 4 1/2 feet tall, about6 feet long from nose to rump, and about 3 feet wide. Harriet also weighs in at a healthy 1,500 pounds.Yes we're dealing with cows now, and not pennies. Why? Well, why not?

Next up - Five Friendly Cows.

value Priceless, just look at her.

width 3 feet

height 4.5 feet

length 6 feet

total weight 1,500 pounds

height stacked 4.5 feet

Cinco Vacas >>

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©copyright 2001 kokogiak media

One Million Cows?

5Five Holstein Cows

Harriet has brought in four more of her good friends. Since we're going to bestacking these hapless cows in the near future, we're encasing them in nice littleforce-field boxes (don't worry, they can breathe just fine).

Next - Seventy-two Curious Cows.

value Priceless

width 15 feet

height 4.5 feet

length 6 feet

total weight 7,500 pounds

height stacked 22.5 feet

288 hooves >>

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©copyright 2001 kokogiak media

One Million Cows?

72Seventy-two Holstein Cows

Now we're talking about a lot of cows. Luckily they stack nicely in their little boxes, otherwise itwould be hard to see them all at once. These 72 cows lined up nose-to-tail would be 432 feet longAs it is, these cows stack up into a neat cube that is 18 feet wide tall and deep.

Next - MegaMoo (1,000,000 cows).

value Priceless

width 18 feet

height 18 feet

length 18 feet

total weight 54 tons

height stacked 324 feet

One Million Cows >>

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One Million Cows!

1,002,240One million, two thousand, two hundred and forty Holstein Cows

Here is Harriet and her million closest cow friends. Over 750,000 tons of grass-munching, milk-givinganimals on 4,008,960 hooves. They are lined up 96 cows tall, 145 cows wide and 72 cows deep.

For some perspective, we have them stackednext to our two famous skyscrapers: The EmpireState Building (1,250 feet) and the Sears Tower(1,450 feet) (at right).

Thanks for visiting MegaMoo, you may now resteasy. knowing what a million cows would look like.

Back to - MegaPenny Project.

value Priceless

width 435 feet

height 432 feet

length 432 feet

total weight 751,680 tons

height stacked 852 miles

back to megapenny, MegaMoo 1, MegaMoo 2, MegaMoo 3

©copyright 2001 kokogiak media