The dot counting tool is kind of neat, but I guess most people didn't need it because if they see a large enough pile of something, they assume it's roughly what they expected (as opposed to "does this bag of candy really contain 30 servings like it says on the package? Let me get a count!")
The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million
191–200 of 578 posts
Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million
#192Kind of off-topic, but I've always thought a good way to suss out what sort of background somebody comes from is to ask them to visualise $1million dollars.
People from a "working class" background tend to see a massive pile of money, more middle class, a smaller pile, upper class maybe a cheque or a small stack of $100 bills or a bank transfer.
It's maybe one of the weirdest parts of the JBR ransom note (getting really off-topic now), "$118,000 dollars be placed into an "adequately sized attaché" consisting of $100,000 in $100 dollar bills and $18,000 in $20 dollar bills."
That would take up a really small amount of space, but if you're never seen that amount of money you might not know that (especially in 1996, pre-internet)
Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because going >50% over-budget isn't a good way to further anyone's career in exhibit design, engineering and construction. I have a friend who works at a firm which specializes in engineering and constructing exhibits for museums and all kinds of public spaces. There's a whole industry ecosystem around doing this. They get brought in on contracts by design firms which specialize in permanent installation exhibits wh…
It is the Fed though, does money actually "cost" anything for them? They're the ones who make the money!
Fun fact, people who work at the Fed just print their salary at the end of the month.
Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million
#194That reminds when a corrupt bureaucrat or a high ranking military in Russia gets arrested there frequently an amount of cash found in the apartment/house equivalent to 1-3 cubic meters in $100 bills (and usually it is a mix of mostly dollars with some euros) .
Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million
#195From a 2014 reddit post[0]:
> This is actually not a million dollars in singles. It is over $1,000,000. The box was created with the wrong dimensions by the contractor, but they still decided to fill it, display it, and claim it is $1,000,000. > > Source: Tour Guide at the Chicago Fed
[0] https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/2f9sp7/one_million_do...
Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million
#1961 Million Swiss Francs in the highest denomination (1000) weighs just 1.14 kg and is a stack of bills around 10 cm high. That is currently also around 1,261,037 USD
[1] https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/wert-nutzung-gewicht-6-fakten-z...
Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million
#197> For all we know, the middle is just air and crumpled-up old newspaper. I think this is the answer. I suspect the exhibit designers had a cool idea for a display, did a rough estimate of the area needed and then commissioned the exhibit builders to make the big metal-framed cube. Either they made an error in their calculation or the innate variability in the size of stacks of used bills threw it off. It's also possi…
Yeah, there's no way they piled the cash into a square on the floor and then measured it and then had the box made based on the measurements. They had the box made FIRST based on rough calculations, being sure to over-estimate it's size on purpose, knowing they can fill the interior with cardboard boxes as needed to space things out.
Considering they handle and transport a lot of money, it's safe to assume they don't meet to make back of the envelope estimations concerning weight and volume.
Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million
#198Maybe just my biased brain, but the title made it sound like they were half a million under, not over. In some way, this is how 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles will never be exactly 1000 pieces. As long as there's at least 1000, I think most people are fine, especially as an art piece. And of course as mentioned, there's the possibility that there's filler inside. It would've been much worse if it was under though.
> In some way, this is how 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles will never be exactly 1000 pieces. What??
Yeah, most jigsaw puzzles do not have precisely the number of pieces advertised. Here's an amusing video (by the channel Stand-up Maths) that does a deep dive into it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXWvptwoCl8
TLDR if you don't have a half-hour: puzzles are usually cut with the pieces on grids, and not all aspect ratios are conducive to that with all piece counts. Like, you might want a 2:3 shaped puzzle with 500 pieces, and 18x28=504 is close enough.
Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million
#199Kind of off-topic, but I've always thought a good way to suss out what sort of background somebody comes from is to ask them to visualise $1million dollars. People from a "working class" background tend to see a massive pile of money, more middle class, a smaller pile, upper class maybe a cheque or a small stack of $100 bills or a bank transfer. It's maybe one of the weirdest parts of the JBR ransom note (getting rea…
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Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there anywhere I can find out more about this?
I learned it when I toured the Mint in Washington DC, but I suspect they have a web page somewhere.
That’s actually the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, on 14th St. SW, which is indeed worth visiting. They print the paper bills (among other things). The U.S. Mint produces the coins. I think only the Philadelphia Mint still mints coins, but it’s also worth visiting.