Visualizing Large Numbers: The MegaPenny Project

Visualizing huge numbers can be very difficult. People regularly talk about millions of miles, billions of bytes, or trillions of dollars, yet it's still hard to grasp just how much a "billion" really is. The MegaPenny Project aims to help by taking one small everyday item, the penny (on this site they use the US penny), and building on that to answer the question: "What would a billion (or a trillion) pennies look like?"

All the pages have tables at the bottom, listing things such as the value of the pennies, size of the pile, weight, and area (if laid flat). All weights and measurements are U.S. standards, not metric.

It's best to step through the project from start to beginning, but if you'd like to just jump in, links are available.