How Big Is $700,000,000,000.00?
Seven hundred billion dollars. Congress voted not to spend$700,000,000,000.00 on Monday. It's still an amazing amount of money.But how big is it physically? You're in luck. Microsoft threw in acalculator with my copy of Windows (thanks Bill).
First,let's define our terms. A single bill of United States currency is 6.14by 2.61 by 0.0043 inches. That's .06890922 cubic inches, in case you'rethinking of renting a storage locker.
Stack a thousand and you've got a brick of bills 4.3 inches thick.One million dollars is one thousand times as thick--4,300 inches, or358 feet tall. Multiply by a thousand again and you've hit a billion.That's 4,300,000 inches or 358,333 feet or 67.866 miles tall.
Hold on. We're only at a billion. The bail-out call was for 700billion. One more trip to the calculator. Now we're at 3,010,000,000inches, 250,833,333 feet, or 47,506 miles tall. Turn the stack on itsside, and it will run from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida toHonolulu, HI ten times (The actual distance is 4,776 miles, so quicklymake friends with Warren Buffett for the extra 25 miles of money). Andsince a bill weighs about one gram, your $700,000,000,000 will weigharound 1,543,235,835 pounds, or 771,618 tons!
Because we often say million and billion and now even trilliontogether when speaking of government matters, it sounds like they'resimilar numbers. They are not. Is there even a comparison when amillionaire can stack his bills 358 feet tall while a billionaire'sstack goes nearly 68 miles!
No one's sure if Senator Everett Dirksen really said "A billionhere, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money," butit's worth bringing up now. Right now we're talking real money!
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