Grasping 700 billion

Seven hundred billion dollars. Like a woman trying to waltz with a sumo wrestler, I'm having trouble wrapping my arms around that figure. To gain some perspective, I tried to envision 700 billion--

Laid end to end, 700 billion dollar bills (66 million miles worth) would stretch from the Earth to Mars and almost all the way back, when the planets are at their closest. Stacking dollar coins would produce a pile 435,000 miles high, well beyond the distance to the Moon. And still no one would want them.

700 billion M&Ms (at 2 grams per chocolatey orb) would be enough to fill 10 one-pound bags for every one of the 300 million Americans. That would be a popular bailout!

700 billion dollars could buy 2009 Lincoln Town Cars for every person in Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, and Idaho.

The combined weight of every human male in the world is considerably less than 700 billion pounds, even including the players in the NFL.

700 billion dollars could buy 87 McDonald's combo meals for every person on Earth, with change left over for antacids.

My heart has beaten approximately 2,196,917, 208 times since I was born 58 years ago. At this rate, I'd have to live to live to be 20,300 years of age to reach 700 billion heartbeats. I'm willing to go for it, for the sake of research.

Federal expenditures to fight the entire World War II and run the rest of the country, adjusted to the 2000 dollars, were only $1.2 trillion.

My conclusion. 700 billion is a bigggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg number.