Let's say a one thousand dollar bill is 1 millimeter thick.
1 millimeter = 0.0393701 inch
Four hundredths of an inch, pretty close to reality.
If you have a stack of thousand dollar bills one meter high, you're a millionaire.
1 meter = 3.2808399 feet
That's a stack of thousand dollar bills little bit above your waist if you're a 6 foot tall person.
Most people think, "It's just numbers. Basically it means richer than I'll ever be. Millionaire, billionaire, not that different. "
Not so much.
If you have a stack of thousand dollar bills one kilometer high, you're a billionaire.
1 kilometer = 3,280.839895 feet
That's a stack of thousand dollar bills as tall as two Sears Towers on top of each other plus a high-rise apartment building, or two.
1 kilometer = 0.6213712 mile
More than half the way from Sea Level to Denver. Straight up into the sky. One million Grover Clevelands stacked on top of each other.
Conclusion: the non-metric system (whatever the hell it's called) is a ploy by the capitalist overlords to prevent US and UK citizens from conceptualizing the wealth of the super-rich or the size of government expenditures. No wonder Europe has more egalitarian societies.
Bill Gates' net worth (2005): $46.5 billion
Cost of War in Iraq to US taxpayers (by end of FY 2005): $204.6 billion
As the L-Curve guy says, "You will not be outraged by outrageous statistics if you don't comprehend the numbers." Word.
Thanks, shystee.
This should be required reading in high schools across the nation.
Go over to the L-Curve and think about what David Chandler has to say.
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1 comment:
Well that just kicks ass! I took a class by Tufte on information display and design. It always annoyed me how people had a poor grasp of large numbers and that showing a bar graph with a zig zag in the highest bar to demonstrate a break in size really wasn't demonstrative enough.
For some of my clients I suggested that they show people a chart with a scale that required them to tape three or four sheets of paper above the top of the highest bar just to show how much higher the highest bar (usually representing speed) really was.
When I suggested it they looked at me like I was the crazy one. They were more concerned with fitting it all on one neat chart and did not realize that they were failing to convey the HUGE difference in a way that was memorable to the viewing audience.
I love the way the flash adjustable site helps demonstrate that kind of difference.
Good find Kelly B!
Spocko
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