Which is bigger, a stack of $10 bills equal to taxes spent in Iraq or the diameter of the earth?

Question

I would like to see how many bills it would take per inch stacked like a bank would do it and a reference to actual earth diameter.

Answer 1

According to the web site I've listed as a source, the total cost of the Iraq war (so far) is about $348 billion. So if you used $1 bills, you would exceed the diameter of the earth. You'd get almost exactly three earths.

(This is a good thought experiment to help people realize how expensive it really is.)

Answer 2

Money is .0043 inches thick...i.e. 232 bills makes one inch.

The earth's diameter is 7926 miles at the equator. In inches, that's 502,191,360. In bills, that's 116,508,395,520. Using ten dollar bills, you get more than $1 trillion, so that's still more than has been spent in Iraq. So far.

Answer 3

PersonaIly, I think it is a better example of how bad we are at comprehending large numbers. For example, most people are quite surprised when told a billion seconds is over 31 years.

Even a million is a tough one. For example, make a quick gut estimate as to how long a million miles is. To the end of your block, maybe? Actually, it's about 15 miles.