Students answer, 'How much is a trillion?'
In news reports of the United States' economic crisis, pundits often make passing mention of the federal deficit in the same manner college students discuss their student loans. Many U.S. citizens know the deficit has exceeded $10 trillion, but most cannot fathom the size of that figure.
Chadron State College business professor Dr. Rick Koza on Wednesday challenged students of his financial markets and institutions course to explain the size of one trillion in terms children can understand.
The 15 class members were divided into teams to work on the project, which was assigned as a fun way to wrap up the fall semester.
The winning team of Andres Cuesta of Ecuador and Nina Tabinaeva of Russia said 5,000 people, or a community about the size of Chadron, would speak in unison 24 hours per day for 70 years to reach the one-trillion-word mark.
Two of the groups used the area covered by a one dollar bill to make their case. One said a trillion $1 bills would result in a stack covering an entire football field 693 feet tall. Another team said 1,918 Olympic-size swimming pools could be filled with the greenbacks.
Two teams used video game consoles for their models. With $1 trillion, 16 consoles at $200 each could be purchased for every man, woman and child in the United States, one group concluded. If the consoles were being purchased for Nebraskans only, each would receive 2,827 units, the students said.
Category: Business, Campus News