Visualization...what would a million pennies look like?

Sometimes, when people talk in terms of millions, billions, trillions, and beyond, it is difficult to visualize just what that looks like. Whether referencing the speed of light or the amount of money in Bill Gate's bank account, sometimes those numbers are just unfathomable. While paroozing the Web searching for pennies, I stumbled upon this fun little site that actually visualizes what various quantities of pennies would look like.

If you are looking for a quick distraction this Friday afternoon, check it out.

http://www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/default.asp

Penny facts: just how many are there?

My son Brayden loves to invent things and to know how things work. This got me thinking about the logistics of penny production and below are a few facts to provide some more insight.

Did you know that 30 million pennies are produced every day? That works out to be approximately 1,040 pennies every second. Do the math and that works out to be 300 million pennies in just 10 days, and just under 1 billion pennies every month. Now that is a lot of pennies.

The shelf life of each penny is approximately 25 years, so when you multiply the math above by how long each penny lasts, and that means there are plenty of pennies out in this world.

Between the length of time pennies are used and the large quantity produced every day, that means that millions of people cross paths with pennies every day.