one of you superior intellects break this down for us commoners to grasp it. how many ants fit in a gallon jug?... or a 55 gallon drum? and then how many gallons or drums would it take for 20 quadrillion??
182.4 55 gallon drums. Plus or minus....
you are asking a problem of volume...sort of like “How many feathers fit in a gallon/55gal drum”. It depends on how densely you pack them.
The article (above) estimates 20 quadrillion ants. Here is an article that talks about weight from 2014 which uses half that estimate (10,000 Trillion = 10 quadrillion):
“Hannah Moore...highlighted that with an estimated 7.2 billion humans on the planet today, the combined weight would total to about 332bn kg. If we can imagine that there are 10,000 trillion ants in the world, all weighing an average of 4 mg, their total weight would equal around 40bn kg.”
That would mean ants equal about ⅛ of the total weight of humanity (All living human beings). Using the 20 quadrillion number, about ¼ the weight of humanity.
In other words, exactly a Shit-Ton of ants
Here’s a visual:
First imagine a container that holds a quadrillion ants. Now imagine 20 of those containers.
That’s exactly what 20 quadrillion ants would look like.
(Hat tip to Norm McDonald who explained that the deficit could only be grasped by picturing 3 one-trillion dollar bills...)