Imagine one billion US dollars in cash, all in 100-dollar bills. How many kilograms would the pile weigh?
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Answer
About 10,000 kg
US banknotes are not made of paper from trees. They are a blend of 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen.
How to estimate it
First count the bills: 1,000,000,000 / 100 = 10 million notes. Every US banknote, whatever its value, weighs about 1 gram, the same as a paperclip. So the pile weighs 10 million grams, which is 10,000 kg, or 10 tonnes, about the load of a large truck. The precise answer is about 10,000 kg.
Source: US Bureau of Engraving and Printing
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