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The Thinking of Students
THE FOLLOWING "FOOD FOR THOUGHT' problem appeared in the February 2000 issue of this journal:
Microsoft founder Bill Gates will be the first person in history to be worth $100 billion. It is really hard to imagine how much money $100 billion actually is.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, each currency note is 2.61 inches wide, 6.14 inches long, and 0.0043 inches thick. Each note weighs about 0.032 troy ounces (12 troy ounces equals 1 pound). The $100 bill has been the largest denomination of United States currency in circulation since 1969.
If Bill Gates's fortune was converted to $100 bills, how many
1. miles high would his fortune be if the bills were stacked on top of one another?
2. football fields long would his fortune be if the individual bills were laid end to end? (Use 120 yards to include both end zones.)
3. 6000-pound sport-utility vehicles would weigh as much as his fortune?
4. Titanics would weigh as much as his fortune? The gross tonnage of the Titanic was 46.328 tons [sic]. Use your imagination to create your own comparison to show how big Bill Gates's fortune of $100 billion actually is.
Seven teachers submitted twenty-four sample solutions to this problem from their fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-grade...