Last year, Apple became the first American trillion dollar company (The stock market is fluid, and at the time of writing this article it’s back below that level, but who knows, it could be back above by the time you read this!)
A trillion is a thousand billion, and a billion is a thousand million. This makes one trillion, one million million. That is almost an inconceivable number to imagine. Humans are very good at estimating and appreciating small relative size jumps, but not things at this scale.
Counting Dollars
Imagine you sit at a table counting dollars bills. One per second. You get to keep what you count. (It’s a fun fantasy).
- If you stopped after a minute, you’d have $60.
- If you stopped after an hour, you’d have $3,600 (nice work if you can get it!)
- If you counted, non-stop, for an entire day (24 hours) you’d earn $86,400.
- To earn a million dollars, you’d have to count, non-stop, for 11.57 days (a little less than two weeks).
One Billion Dollars
How long would it take to get to a billion dollars? Well, that’s a thousand times a million, so it’s 11.57 thousand days. That’s 31.7 years! That’s right, if you count at one dollar per second, non-stop, 24 hours a day from the day you were born, you’d have accumulated a billion dollars just before your 32nd birthday. Congratulations on your first billion! (Do it couple of hundred more times and give Jeff Bezos a challenge for the World's richest person).
One Trillion Dollars
But how long to get to one trillion? A trillion is a thousand billion. So you’d need to be counting for 31.7 thousand years!
To count one trillion dollars, one dollar per second, would take 31,688 years!
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Other, hard to appreciate, scale things
There are plenty of other things in the universe that it is hard for humans to conceive the scale about. Space, for instance, is really big!
Another is just how much space there is in matter. ‘Stuff’ really is just 99.9999999999999% nothing!
I've got quite a bit of background in finance and economics, especially concerning market capitalization and large-scale monetary values. Apple's rise to become the first American trillion-dollar company was a significant milestone. The concept of a trillion dollars is mind-boggling; it's not just a big number, it's an almost inconceivable amount. Let's break down the staggering scale involved.
The article uses analogies to help grasp the enormity of a trillion dollars. Counting dollars at a rate of one per second gives a tangible sense of how immense these figures are. For instance:
- A minute of counting yields $60.
- An hour of non-stop counting accumulates $3,600.
- To reach a million dollars, you'd need to count continuously for around 11.57 days.
- Scaling up to a billion dollars, it would require 31.7 years of non-stop counting at one dollar per second.
- Finally, to reach a trillion dollars, you'd have to count for an astonishing 31,688 years, still at the rate of one dollar per second.
The comparison of time required to count these amounts really illustrates the vast difference between millions, billions, and trillions. It's fascinating how these simple exercises help in comprehending the scale involved in financial figures.
The article also touches on the difficulty humans have in comprehending other large-scale phenomena, like the enormity of space and the fact that matter, at its core, is mostly empty space. Understanding these magnitudes challenges our perception, showcasing the vastness and complexity of the universe.
If we're looking at market valuations, especially in trillion-dollar territories, it's worth considering the growth trajectories and market dynamics behind such companies as Apple and others that vie for similar positions. Apple's rise and the discussion around trillion-dollar valuations are indicative of the tech industry's influence on global markets and the ever-evolving landscape of corporate finance.
Understanding these colossal numbers and their implications not only showcases the financial prowess of companies like Apple but also sheds light on the limitations of human perception when it comes to comprehending such immense scales.
