I got curious about how many wheelbarrows of cash $20bn actually is.
Two ways to think about it: weight vs volume.
By weight (assuming all $100 bills):
$20,000,000,000 / $100 = 200,000,000 bills
Each bill is roughly 1g, so total mass is ~200,000 kg
A typical builder’s wheelbarrow can take about 100 kg before it becomes unmanageable
200,000 kg total / 100 kg per wheelbarrow ≈ 2,000 wheelbarrows (weight limit)
By volume:
A $100 bill is ~6.14" × 2.61" × 0.11 mm, which comes out to about 102 cm³ per bill
200,000,000 bills × 102 cm³ ≈ 20,400 m³ of cash
A standard wheelbarrow holds around 0.08 m³ (80 litres)
20,400 m³ total / 0.08 m³ per wheelbarrow ≈ 255,000 wheelbarrows (volume limit)
So,
About 2,000 wheelbarrows if you only care about weight
About 255,000 wheelbarrows if you actually have to fit the cash in
So the limiting factor isn’t how heavy the money is; it’s that the physical volume of the cash is absurd. At this scale, $20bn in $100s is effectively a warehouse, not a stack.
I think your volume per bill should be 6.14 * 0.0254 * 2.61 * 0.0254 * 0.00011 ≈ 1.137e-6 m³. That means about 227 m³ total volume, or about 2800 wheelbarrows.
Something wrong about representing the weight of US dollars in metric units.
They should have converted to Euros first.
> Something wrong about representing the weight of US dollars in metric units.
The traditional unit of measure of truckloads of money is (drum roll) a dump truck. A large dump truck holds 16-20 cubic yards.
https://www.catdumptruck.com/standard-dump-truck-size-chart/
Then what do you say to 6.14" × 2.61" × 0.11 mm = 102 cm³
How many pounds is it? Whos on first?
The movie Blow had a scene about the logistics dealing with tons of cash. Even before thinking about laundering, it’s a huge PITA.
I think you’re off by about a factor of 100 on the volume of a single bill. So both cases it’s in the ballpark of 2000 wheelbarrows.
A better way to think of it is: If you got a dollar a second for the next 63 years, you still would not have gotten $2B.
Your volume of a single bill is a bit off.