Orders of Magnitude (currency)

This page is a progressive and labeled list of the SI currency orders of magnitude, with certain examples appended to some list objects.

Orders of magnitude
(money expressed in United States dollars)
Factor ($) Short scale Money Item
10 −17 one Zimbabwean cent $3.33 * 10−17 Exchange rate on February 2 of 2009
10−3 one mill $0.001 smallest unit of currency, used in pricing gasoline and computing taxes
10−2 one cent $0.01 used chiefly for making change
10−1 one dime $0.10 highest common price per page for self-service monochrome photocopying
100 one dollar $1 double cheeseburger at McDonald's
$4 typical drink of gourmet coffee
101 ten dollars $10 wristwatch with quartz circuit; 20 lb. sack of rice
102 one hundred dollars $100 2 or 3 video games
$400 approximate annual GDP per capita (PPP) for East Timor (2004, CIA World Factbook)
103 one thousand dollars $1,000 used car (15 years old, runs)
$1,000 midrange personal computer
$1,000 a nice digital camera; approximate GDP per capita (PPP) for Nigeria (2004)
$9,117 approximate world GDP per capita (PPP) (2008)
104 ten thousand dollars $10,000 cheap new car
$10,000 approximate GDP per capita (PPP) for Russia (2004)
$20,000 (Israel, Greece)–$40,000 (Jersey, Norway, |United States) - approximate GDP per capita (PPP) in most first world nations (2004)
$26,000 cost of an average new car
$30,000 cost of an Engineering degree from an average university
$35,060 annual income (GNI) per capita (PPP) for employed citizens of the United States, as of 2002
105 one hundred thousand dollars $100,000 - $999,999 In the United States, a "six figure salary" is sometimes seen as a milestone of significant wealth, and indicator of higher social class.
$100,000 small house far from cities
$100,000 cost of a Law degree from a prestigious university
$101,000 median value of a home in the U.S. in 1990
$120,000 median value of a home in the U.S. in 2000
106 one million dollars $1,000,000 huge house in suburbs; nice condo downtown in large city
107 ten million dollars $10,000,000 a small hospital
108 one hundred million dollars $100,000,000 large city office building
$264,000,000 estimated price of an Airbus A380 airplane
109 one billion dollars $1.5×109 Burj Khalifa, world's tallest building
$2.5×109 estimated cost of a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber
1010 ten billion dollars $15.83×109 Gross Domestic Product of Iceland
$45×109 cost of the high-speed train from San Francisco |to Los Angeles, the route for which is to be constructed by the |California High-Speed Rail Authority
$55×109 cost of a manned mission to Mars with a crew of four astronauts |(cost would be spread out over ten years) using Robert Zubrin’s Mars Direct plan
$62×109 fortune of Warren Buffett, world's richest man, as of 2008
$64.8×109 amount of paper losses in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, exposed in 2008, the largest in history, including $20 billion of cash losses. By 2010, clawback lawsuits against those who had profited from the Ponzi scheme had recovered $10 billion, thus allowing cash loss victims to be compensated at 50 cents on the dollar
1011 one hundred billion dollars $100×109 budget for reconstruction of Iraq
$100×109 total cost of the International Space Station
$151×109 2012 cost estimate by Amtrak for construction of a high-speed rail link from Boston to Washington, D.C.
$169×109 total value of all real estate in Manhattan
$236×109 Gross Domestic Product of Greece (CIA World Factbook)
$420×109 approximate United States budget deficit
$425×109 cost of construction of the Interstate Highway System (in 2006 dollars), the "largest public works program since the Pyramids"
$972×109 total cost so far (as of March 2010) of the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan ($712 billion for the Iraq War and $260 billion for the War in Afghanistan)
1012 one trillion dollars $1.26×1012 total value of all real estate in Florida
$2.2×1012 Cost of a mission to Alpha Centauri as proposed in 1968 by physicist Freeman J. Dyson—a space ark would be built using an Orion nuclear pulse propulsion rocket powered by hydrogen bombs. The rocket would have a payload of 50,000 tonnes and be able to travel at 3.3% of the speed of light and reach Alpha Centauri in 133 years. (Cost is calculated by multiplying original 1968 cost of $367 billion by six.)

$2.5×1012 approximate United States annual federal budget as of 2005
$9.06×1012 United States national debt as of October 2007
1013 ten trillion dollars $12.39×1012 United States GDP (PPP) as of 2005
$42.7 ×1012 total wealth of all 10.9 million rich people (defined as those with $1 million or more of investable assets) in the world as of 2010. Thus, the rich, 0.15% of the world's population of 7 billion, control 30.5% of all world financial assets of $140 trillion.
$53.5 ×1012 total of all private household net worth in the United States as of Sep. 2009
$55×1012 global GDP (PPP)
$62×1012 value of all real estate in the developed countries (includes $48 trillion residential real estate and $14 trillion commercial real estate) as of 2002
$67×1012 total amount of banking assets in the shadow banking system—about half of all world banking assets—according to a 2012 report by the Financial Stability Board.

1014 one hundred trillion dollars $140×1012 total value of all world financial assets
$510 ×1012 total world derivative contracts as of June 2007

Famous quotes containing the words orders and/or magnitude:

    “Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense.”
    —Henry Miller (1891–1980)

    “Sometimes you’re overwhelmed when a thing comes, and you do not realize the magnitude of the affair at that moment. When you get away from it, you wonder, did it really happen to you.”
    —Marian Anderson (1902–1993)