In the United States, one trillion means the number one followed by twelve zeros. In other words, it looks like 1,000,000,000,000. To understand how large this number is, it helps to think in terms of time. One year contains about 31.6 million seconds. Because of this, one trillion seconds equals roughly 31,546 years. Furthermore, six trillion seconds adds up to almost 189,276 years, which clearly shows how massive these numbers really are.
Now, to put this into perspective, the U.S. national debt is close to five trillion dollars. As a result, it becomes easier to understand why leaders in Washington worry about it so much. Additionally, there is an interesting way to imagine this debt. If someone tried to count the national debt at the speed of one dollar per second, they would need a mechanical counter. Otherwise, speaking the numbers out loud would take too long. For example, saying very large numbers can take several seconds to pronounce. Therefore, this simple comparison shows just how overwhelming trillion-level figures truly are.
