Expensive stuff ... I mean really, REALLY expensive!

[bump]

@Lumpy

This gets into the whole subject of marginal cost: how much it costs to make one more of something after you’ve already covered the cost of being able to produce any at all. Typically, investment-heavy items benefit from economy of scale.

That’s essentially what I was getting at; the Manhattan Project didn’t just yield Trinity, Fat Man and Little Boy; it yielded the entire uranium enrichment and plutonium generation and separation infrastructures and capability, as well as the industrial capacity to actually fabricate uranium and plutonium items, as well as a WHOLE LOT of basic scientific research into what is now basic atomic physics about the nature of atomic fission and radioactivity. So I’d argue that those costs are only partially applicable to Fat Man and Little Boy.

But even if you do count all that strictly as Manhattan Project costs, it wasn’t spread across only the 2 combat bombs and one test bomb (Trinity). The US military used the Fat Man design for another 5 years, until 1950, and built a grand total of 124 weapons of that type (Trinity, Fat Man, the 2 used in Operation Crossroads (Able and Baker) and 120 stockpiled ones). So in total, that cost would be split by 125 (124 Fat Man bombs and 1 Little Boy bomb).

[watchwolf49]

WWII cost the United States $4.1 trillion in 2011 dollars, and just for military operations, add the Marshall Plan in and the costs to all the other countries involved … lives lost … cultures destroyed … and there’s still unexploded bombs lurking, waiting to kill more peoples. {“Costs of Major U.S. Wars”}

[watchwolf49]

@bump

That’s essentially what I was getting at; the Manhattan Project didn’t just yield Trinity, Fat Man and Little Boy; it yielded the entire uranium enrichment and plutonium generation and separation infrastructures and capability, as well as the industrial capacity to actually fabricate uranium and plutonium items, as well as a WHOLE LOT of basic scientific research into what is now basic atomic physics about the nature of atomic fission and radioactivity. So I’d argue that those costs are only partially applicable to Fat Man and Little Boy.

But even if you do count all that strictly as Manhattan Project costs, it wasn’t spread across only the 2 combat bombs and one test bomb (Trinity). The US military used the Fat Man design for another 5 years, until 1950, and built a grand total of 124 weapons of that type (Trinity, Fat Man, the 2 used in Operation Crossroads (Able and Baker) and 120 stockpiled ones). So in total, that cost would be split by 125 (124 Fat Man bombs and 1 Little Boy bomb).

Don’t forget we still have to clean up the mess we made, $112 billion estimated just for Hanford {Cite}

[DtypeJag]

The prescription eyedrops for glaucoma my mom used to take had .00004 gm of active ingredient in a 1ml solution of something inert. The retail price was $158 and medicare paid $113 of this. At the retail price this works out to almost $4,000,000 /gm or $3million for medicare.

Surely this must be a candidate for the most expensive chemical on the planet. Isn’t this about the cost of Plutonium?

I’m not sure if the .00004 was gm or % but I’m willing to give the manufacturer the benefit of the doubt otherwise multiply by 100.

[chacoguy]

You forgot about printer ink.

[kayaker]

Years ago I was the high bidder on a leather bound bible signed by Jesus Christ on the frontispiece. eBay ended the auction, on the grounds of suspected chicanery. If they hadn’t, my $25 bid would have gotten me a potentially priceless artifact.

[Blue_Blistering_Barnacle]

@Tired_and_Cranky

Trying to find a single expensive thing, I looked at the cost of the Large Hadron Collider. Only $9 billion – for all the science we get out of it, it’s a bargain compared to an aircraft carrier.

Sure, but it’s useless if you’re trying to go from point A to point B.

[lazybratsche]

@DtypeJag

The prescription eyedrops for glaucoma my mom used to take had .00004 gm of active ingredient in a 1ml solution of something inert. The retail price was $158 and medicare paid $113 of this. At the retail price this works out to almost $4,000,000 /gm or $3million for medicare.

Surely this must be a candidate for the most expensive chemical on the planet. Isn’t this about the cost of Plutonium?

I’m not sure if the .00004 was gm or % but I’m willing to give the manufacturer the benefit of the doubt otherwise multiply by 100.

A few hundred bucks for a few micrograms? That’s pretty normal for a lot of the antibodies, enzymes, and other proteins I use in the lab.

For kicks, I just looked up one of the more expensive cancer biologics. I didn’t do a very thorough search, but I did find a price of $2700 per 400 mg vial. To be honest that’s a lot cheaper than I expected, working out to be only $6750 per gram (I wish I could buy monoclonal antibodies that cheap…) Another controversially expensive drug, Sovaldi, “only” costs $1000 per 400 mg pill, or $2500 per gram.

[Broomstick]

@Whack-a-Mole

Nothing else come close really on a pound-for-pound basis.

A gram of antimatter costs around $25 billion to produce. Of course, there is nowhere near a gram of antimatter on earth so in real terms it costs less than other things listed here but in terms price/gram (or whatever weight measurement you want to use) nothing else comes remotely close. Not even the ISS.

That price is for positrons. That’s a bunch of sub-atomic particles (the anti-equivalent of electrons).

Anti-hydrogen, an actual anti-element, is estimated to be $62 trillion per gram to make. Estimated because we’ve never had more than a few atoms of it at any one time, nowhere near a gram.

[bibliophage]

@Dervorin

The BBC had an article on this today:

What is the most expensive object on Earth? - BBC News

I came in to post this. The winner among earthbound stuff seems to be the Gorgon Gas Project in Australia, projected to cost 54 billion USD by the time it’s completed. It may not count as an “object” for the purposes of this thread though.

They also mention the Hinkley Point nuclear power station in England with a construction cost of 26 billion USD and the Hong Kong International Airport with a construction cost of 29 billion USD in today’s money.

[AndrewL]

@Tired_and_Cranky

Trying to find a single expensive thing, I looked at the cost of the Large Hadron Collider. Only $9 billion – for all the science we get out of it, it’s a bargain compared to an aircraft carrier.

For all that money, you’d think they could have made it weasel-proof.

[Shagnasty]

I just stumbled across this article that says a new nuclear power plant in the UK will be the most expensive thing ever constructed when it is completed at about 35 billion dollars.

What is the most expensive object on Earth?

[Leo_Bloom]

@watchwolf49

WWII cost the United States $4.1 trillion in 2011 dollars, and just for military operations, add the Marshall Plan in and the costs to all the other countries involved … lives lost … cultures destroyed … and there’s still unexploded bombs lurking, waiting to kill more peoples. {“Costs of Major U.S. Wars”}

Cited entirely for the comment in the “reason for editing line,” not citeable automatically, but brilliant.

Otherwise a “:D” to begin this post is definitely weird.

[bump]

@watchwolf49

Don’t forget we still have to clean up the mess we made, $112 billion estimated just for Hanford {Cite}

Even that would be spread across dozens of weapon projects and tens of thousands of individual weapons, as Hanford was used for decades

[scr4]

@Shagnasty

I just stumbled across this article that says a new nuclear power plant in the UK will be the most expensive thing ever constructed when it is completed at about 35 billion dollars.

What is the most expensive object on Earth? - BBC News

If we’re including things that aren’t yet built, the Chuo Maglev (magnetically levitated train line from Tokyo to Osaka) will cost 9 trillion yen, which is about 85 billion US dollars.

[Trom]

Not a physical thing, but if we’re considering concepts like military budgets, etc…the notional value of the global derivatives market is estimated to be $1.2 quadrillion - ten times global GDP. Though, that figure is pretty much meaningless.

[Tired_and_Cranky]

@Trom

Not a physical thing, but if we’re considering concepts like military budgets, etc…the notional value of the global derivatives market is estimated to be $1.2 quadrillion - ten times global GDP. Though, that figure is pretty much meaningless.

Let’s create an even bigger notional market right now. I will bet you $1 that I won’t earn $1,000 quadrillion next year. If you take that bet, the notional value of our bet is greater than the entire global derivatives market. Meaningless is right.