The Quintillion Question
How many zeroes does a quintillion dollars have? Who cares? Even the biggest economies in the world don’t have budgets that big. The world’s biggest economy, the USA, had a GDP of just under US$14 trillion in 2007. So we can rest assured that the world’s economists and accountants don’t have to worry about how to balance quintillion figures. That’s by and large true, except in Zimbabwe…If not now, then soon. On Tuesday 22nd April the total value if shares on the Zimbabwe stock exchange shot past Z$500 quadrillion to hit an all time high of Z$526,5 quadrillion. That’s over half a QUINTILLION dollars! Now where else on earth do you get the amazing opportunity to use that word in a real scenario? Can’t think of any. QUINTILLION. That feels good. Say it again. QUINTILLION!!
And how many zeroes is that?
1,000,000,000,000,000
That’s fifteen zeroes. And that’s our maths lesson for the day.
Written by fungaijames on April 23rd, 2008 with
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Unofungei? Unoitei? I capture the stories that often escape the lenses of big media. I record the life of a pregnant nation. This is a door into the country that I love. These are my thoughts. These are my memories... 
