on the sole condition that you had to HAND SORT them ALL out by serial number before you could have it with time being irrelevant, would you accept?

and if you die or quit you forfeit the money.

would you quit your job to count it?

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 5:49 PM. Reason : d]

5/4/2010 5:38:37 PM

If time were irrelevant meaning I couldn't ever die, then yes i probably would accept.

could I take breaks, and spend what I had already counted?

assuming a one dollar bill weighs one gram, one metric ton contains approximately $1 million

i could waste my time more efficiently playing the lotto in the hopes of winning more

5/4/2010 5:40:46 PM

At 1 gram/bill, a metric ton would be 1,000,000 dollars.

Sorting a million bills would take a LONGGG time, but I can't imagine it would take more than a couple months.

Hell yeah I'd do it.

5/4/2010 5:40:57 PM

Brewster's millions metric ton!

5/4/2010 5:41:10 PM

^^that's what I was thinking too

5/4/2010 5:41:55 PM

take 25 % of that and promise it to the workers I hire to sort it for me.

5/4/2010 5:42:34 PM

Hell yeah ... since it's cash, you wouldn't have to report it

paid under the table ftw

5/4/2010 5:43:28 PM

About 450 bills weigh one pound

A metric ton is 2200 pounds

So this would be just under a million dollars

I would think I could do all of this sorting in several months at most

So yes, it would be a wise financial move

5/4/2010 5:43:28 PM

im not that great at sorting and im not really supposed to be alive after 25 so id have to pass

5/4/2010 5:45:02 PM

I would take a few weeks off work to sort it... I think I could get it done fairly quickly.

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 5:48 PM. Reason : maybe a month?]

5/4/2010 5:45:45 PM

any computer scientist would gladly take this challenge

5/4/2010 5:46:39 PM

Quote :

"At 1 gram/bill, a metric ton would be 1,000,000 dollars. Sorting a million bills would take a LONGGG time, but I can't imagine it would take more than a couple months. Hell yeah I'd do it."

you are right that it is 1,000,000 dollars. However, if someone just dumped them into a room it would probably take more than a few months for you to sort through them yourself...

-Assuming you only sleep 6 hours a day and do nothing but sort bills the other 18 hours of the day
-Assuming you spend no more than 3 minutes per bill (which would still be tough)

It would take you 8 years to sort them all in order. 8 years of my life isn't worth 1,000,000 if I only get the money at the end of the sorting and do nothing else the entire time I am sorting.

5/4/2010 5:47:05 PM

yes. duh.

5/4/2010 5:47:39 PM

SOUNDS LIKE A JOB FOR QUICKSORT

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

5/4/2010 5:47:43 PM

I bet 1 person could sort 1 million dollars in a week or 2 working 12 hours a day.

5/4/2010 5:48:51 PM

i cant imagine it would take 8 years


btw HAND SORT not no damn puter

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 5:48 PM. Reason : g]

5/4/2010 5:48:53 PM

Anyone who takes 8 years to sort a million bills is a fucking mongloid and doesn't deserve the money

I've put together 3000 piece puzzles in one night

I know I could sort all this shit by August 1st

5/4/2010 5:49:21 PM

taking what I know of common weights I run across in my lab, I wouldn't think a bill would weight 1 gram... maybe two or three bill might

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 5:51 PM. Reason : clarify... but I don't REALLY know... just guessing]

5/4/2010 5:50:16 PM

fuck that, i just live

5/4/2010 5:50:38 PM

Good thing you're not a drug dealer then

5/4/2010 5:50:44 PM

if you die you forfeit the money... hmm.

why would you need to go and make that a stipulation?

5/4/2010 5:50:49 PM

i would just put them all in a stack and make sure the top and bottom serial numbers were more than 1 million apart

5/4/2010 5:51:01 PM

^^^^^ they are supposed to weigh 1 gram

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 5:51 PM. Reason : ]

5/4/2010 5:51:07 PM

id do it if it were carried out on the moon

5/4/2010 5:54:35 PM

I would do it on the off chance that it was or contained unmarked bills.

5/4/2010 5:55:12 PM

that would be a hell of a stack

5/4/2010 5:55:15 PM

1 million bills is a fucking lot. I imagine 3 minutes per bill is about right. If you were to line them all up so that the serial numbers were visible, that would be ~2 inches per bill, or 2million inches.. thats about 17,000 feet of bills.

You would have to invent some sort of filing system...


at 3 minutes a bill, i got 5.7 years.. 3,000,000/60 = 50000/24 = 2084/365 = 5.707

5/4/2010 5:56:09 PM

a nickel weighs 5 grams

handy for checking calibration on hanging eyes

5/4/2010 5:56:23 PM

yeah, i went to look it up. i guess they are heavier than they seem.

5/4/2010 5:57:49 PM

Quote :

"I bet 1 person could sort 1 million dollars in a week or 2 working 12 hours a day."

That's only 1.65 seconds per bill.


Think about how long it takes to look a word up in the dictionary and apply that to this.

5/4/2010 5:57:54 PM

It would probably take you 2 weeks just to count from 1 to 1,000,000

sorting would be a pain in the ass

However, even if it took you 2 years to sort them, thats still 2 years making $500,000 a year

Hell, if it took you 5 years, thats still $200k a year which is probably more than all of us make

5/4/2010 5:59:10 PM

The question doesn't say you have to do it alone, so just get nine of your best friends and pocket $100k each after eight months or less.

5/4/2010 6:03:26 PM

^easier said then done...you'd have to do a lot of collaborating...can't just say "everybody take 1/10 of the bills and sort them"

i'm sure you could work out some kind of system though

5/4/2010 6:04:33 PM

Who cares how long it takes? It's free (other than your time). Sorting money could be a great hobby.

5/4/2010 6:04:37 PM

I used to sort money at a job I had. It's only fun if you're OCD, like me.

5/4/2010 6:06:44 PM

you used to sort money by serial #?

it would also be fun, if its your money like lucy said

although you might go partially insane

5/4/2010 6:07:24 PM

Quote :

"I bet 1 person could sort 1 million dollars in a week or 2 working 12 hours a day."

That's only 1.65 seconds per bill.


Think about how long it takes to look a word up in the dictionary and apply that to this.

5/4/2010 6:07:49 PM

I'm ridiculously OCD. I proofread (and write) for a living). Organizing makes me

5/4/2010 6:07:54 PM

Quote :

"1 million bills is a fcking lot. I imagine 3 minutes per bill is about right. If you were to line them all up so that the serial numbers were visible, that would be ~2 inches per bill, or 2million inches.. thats about 17,000 feet of bills. You would have to invent some sort of filing system... at 3 minutes a bill, i got 5.7 years.. 3,000,000/60 = 50000/24 = 2084/365 = 5.707"

I got that too, but then I backed out 6 hours a day for sleep. which is where I got the 8 years from.

Quote :

"Anyone who takes 8 years to sort a million bills is a fcking mongloid and doesn't deserve the money I've put together 3000 piece puzzles in one night"

This is night and day. Sorting through a 3000 piece puzzle where all your clues are visibly accessible at a cursory glance (shape as well as distinguishable colored markings) is nowhere close to the same as having to physically pick up a bill and read all 10 numbers in the serial and then scan your currently sorted bills to find the spot that it would go. A puzzle also gets easier as each piece is solved because it forms a logical image. Depending on how you do this, the sorting would actually take LONGER the more your sorting progressed.

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 6:17 PM. Reason : ]

5/4/2010 6:08:37 PM

One time, Lucy sorted all of my pubic hair by height and color.

Very embarrassing

5/4/2010 6:09:05 PM

I am the boy version of you, lucyinthesky.

^ EMCE runs the pubic hair spectrum.

5/4/2010 6:09:13 PM

^^ It was quite challenging as it was all still attached to your body.

5/4/2010 6:10:30 PM

Very embarrassing

5/4/2010 6:10:54 PM

I wouldn't do it, and I don't even have a job.

I would accept it though, and put it into a big room and burn it like the Joker. Seems like it would be a good time.

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 6:11 PM. Reason : ]

5/4/2010 6:11:04 PM

Quote :

"easier said then done...you'd have to do a lot of collaborating...can't just say "everybody take 1/10 of the bills and sort them""

you sit down with everybody for a couple of weeks and put them into ten piles based on serial numbers (ie: x100000-x200000, x200001-x300000). everybody takes a pile, and then at the end of sorting you draw straws to see who ends up getting to do two chicks at the same time.

actually, that depends on knowing the range of serial numbers and the #s being consecutive. nevermind.

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 6:12 PM. Reason : .]

5/4/2010 6:11:42 PM

yeah that would be a good start

5/4/2010 6:12:57 PM

if it's 8 years go rob a federal bank stash it and do your time

fed time is cake

5/4/2010 6:13:32 PM

i'd do it. don't know if i'd quite my job to count it, but i'd totally sort it out if i could keep it.

5/4/2010 6:17:55 PM

^if you didnt quit your job, you'd probably never finish sorting the money in time to use it just doing it a few hours at a time in your spare time

[Edited on May 4, 2010 at 6:20 PM. Reason : ]

5/4/2010 6:18:57 PM

set em up

5/4/2010 6:19:59 PM