[bunderbunder]

SELECT impressive_number FROM out_of_thin_air;

[goong]

Exactly, although you need a function to make the number look precise. (ex. $97 million but NOT $100 million)

[bunderbunder]

True enough.

It'd be very interesting to collect a large pile of estimates like these and see if they come even close to following Benford's Law[1].

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benfords_law

[finnh]

I would imagine that it's close to the inverse - a big pile of numbers that start with 9, and many many fewer that start with 1.