How Many Zeros Is That?

If time is money, then the time some of us spend on the phone with customer service centers might be worth a pretty penny. Now one man has translated his aggravation into a real number. And from the looks of the figure, he was really mad.

Reuters reportsthat Dalton Chiscolm wants Bank Of America to deposit "1,784 billion, trillion dollars" into his account because he says he received "inconsistent information" from a customer service agent and his "checks have been rejected because of incomplete routing numbers."

Just how ridiculous is his request? The amount he’s asking for has 23 digits. As a comparison, the GDP of all the countries on the planet equals $60 trillion, which amounts to just 14 digits.

Even to a judge used to overseeing cases with big numbers – Judge Denny Chin also saw the Bernie Madoff sentencing – this one was simply "incomprehensible."

Photo courtesy Neubie via Flickr.