2 Octillion Gigadollars

[shynung]

The bakery-cafe chain Au Bon Pain is being sued for 2 undecillion dollars(or 2 octillion gigadollars, which is the number 2 followed by 36 zeroes).

What could humanity have done, in terms of space exploration, with that amount of money?

[razark]

Everything that doesn't violate the laws of physics.

How much money is it?

Edited May 15, 2014 by razark

[astropapi1]

Couple of mars landings, a moon base, sone space stations, a SSTO cargo plane, NERVAs...

THINK OF THE POSSIBILITIES!

[Rainbowtrout]

It does seem a bit much. Given that money, I could be on the next trip to Europa.

[NASAFanboy]

Given that money, I would be riding my acclubierre drive ship to a tropical extrasolar planet

[lajoswinkler]

I'd buy all candy in the world, shut down all candy factories and then launch it into orbit, so everyone could look at it, knowing they can't have it.

[KerbMav]

Given that money, I would be riding my acclubierre drive ship to a tropical extrasolar planet

Even nature might not be able to resist a bribe of this size, yes.

I'd buy all candy in the world, shut down all candy factories and then launch it into orbit, so everyone could look at it, knowing they can't have it.

You have a very strict mother, dont you?

[Spartwo]

Reminds me of austin powers.

[Holo]

The cost of generating electricity is around £100 per MWh. This corresponds to around $170 per MWh. This means that, in terms of electricity, $2V (two undecillion dollars) equals is worth 1.176E34 MWh.

But how much, exactly, is 12 TDWh (twelve decillion megawatt-hours)? The total luminosity of the sun is 3.83E20 MW. This means, to equal the required amount of energy to pay the $2V lawsuit, the Sun will need to have 100% of its output harvested for 30.7 trillion hours. This is equal to 3.5 billion years, well within the remaining lifespan of the Sun.

In other words, the $2V lawsuit can be payed easily using a single star, provided that all of its energy output is harvested for 3.5 billion years. However, this is far too much – Mr. Purisima is very unlikely to be able to live for that long in order to actually receive the money. He could simply have the $2V payed to his distant descendants, but it is likely that he would much prefer to receive it in his lifetime.

I am unsure of the age of Mr. Purisima, but the average age of a male living in the United States is 35.5 years, and the average life expectancy of a male living in the United States is 77.4 years. This means that, on average, a male living in the US has 41.9 years left to live. As this is 83.64 million times less than the amount of time that it would take with a single star, it means that 83.64 million stars, all of their energy harvested for the remainder of Mr. Purisima’s life, then paid in the largest transaction in galactic history, to pay off the lawsuit.

The best part is is that 80 million stars isn’t really that much. There are 200-400 billion stars in the Milky Way, meaning that, assuming that all energy in the galaxy was focused entirely towards paying expensive lawsuits, up to 3,586 Anton Purisimas could be sustained at any one time.

[Nuke]

buy everyone in the world a ferrari.

[Legendary Emu]

I'm pretty sure with that much money you could build a few huge ships with comfortable housing for 40 and has artificial gravity in it that could do a tour of Mars, Saturn, Venus and return in a single tank. That may be an understatement.

[Moon Goddess]

Well seeing as it's more valuable that all the matterial in the solar system, we're talking you could build something "sufficiently advanced"

[Zaryulenko]

Uh..... i think it could uh..... BUILD THE DEATH STAR!

[lajoswinkler]

You have a very strict mother, dont you?

No. I'm just evil.

[The Destroyer]

We all know what would happen with that kind of money...

[SuperBigD60]

The cost of generating electricity is around £100 per MWh. This corresponds to around $170 per MWh. This means that, in terms of electricity, $2V (two undecillion dollars) equals is worth 1.176E34 MWh.

But how much, exactly, is 12 TDWh (twelve decillion megawatt-hours)? The total luminosity of the sun is 3.83E20 MW. This means, to equal the required amount of energy to pay the $2V lawsuit, the Sun will need to have 100% of its output harvested for 30.7 trillion hours. This is equal to 3.5 billion years, well within the remaining lifespan of the Sun.

In other words, the $2V lawsuit can be payed easily using a single star, provided that all of its energy output is harvested for 3.5 billion years. However, this is far too much – Mr. Purisima is very unlikely to be able to live for that long in order to actually receive the money. He could simply have the $2V payed to his distant descendants, but it is likely that he would much prefer to receive it in his lifetime.

I am unsure of the age of Mr. Purisima, but the average age of a male living in the United States is 35.5 years, and the average life expectancy of a male living in the United States is 77.4 years. This means that, on average, a male living in the US has 41.9 years left to live. As this is 83.64 million times less than the amount of time that it would take with a single star, it means that 83.64 million stars, all of their energy harvested for the remainder of Mr. Purisima’s life, then paid in the largest transaction in galactic history, to pay off the lawsuit.

The best part is is that 80 million stars isn’t really that much. There are 200-400 billion stars in the Milky Way, meaning that, assuming that all energy in the galaxy was focused entirely towards paying expensive lawsuits, up to 3,586 Anton Purisimas could be sustained at any one time.

Nice, man.

So basically, we'd be well on our way to being a tier 3 civilization by the time we've got access to this sort of cash as a society.

We might visit another galaxy before that.

[Nuke]

i figure we would just blow it all on wars though.

[KerbMav]

Assign the claim to the Lehman Brothers to invest in real estate around the world, in a few months the value of the bond should have reached a managable sum that can be disbursed in any branch of any bank.

[Holo]

Assign the claim to the Lehman Brothers to invest in real estate around the world, in a few months the value of the bond should have reached a managable sum that can be disbursed in any branch of any bank.

Around the world? Don't you mean galaxy?

[shynung]

There are 200-400 billion stars in the Milky Way, meaning that, assuming that all energy in the galaxy was focused entirely towards paying expensive lawsuits, up to 3,586 Anton Purisimas could be sustained at any one time.

I hope Mr. Purisima does not clone himself with all that money, and do it all over again.

[Kinglet]

It is not a lot of money. There will be so much money that the price of the dollar will be insanely tiny. I am surprised that nobody mentioned this yet.

[Holo]

It is not a lot of money. There will be so much money that the price of the dollar will be insanely tiny. I am surprised that nobody mentioned this yet.

Not if the payer produces that value by, say, constructing 80 million Dyson spheres.