To cover the entire land area of the United States with Oreo cookies, estimates suggest it would take approximately 5.7 quadrillion Oreos. This calculation is based on the surface area of an Oreo cookie (about 15.62 cm²) and the total land area of the US (around 9,833,520 km²), adjusted for packing efficiency of about 90.7% when placing circular cookies side by side without gaps
. In more detail:
- The radius of an Oreo is about 2.23 cm, giving each cookie a surface area of roughly 15.62 cm².
- The US land area converts to approximately 9.8 × 10^14 cm².
- Dividing the US land area by the area of one Oreo yields a raw number of about 6.47 quadrillion Oreos.
- Accounting for packing efficiency (since circles don't pack perfectly), the final estimate is about 5.7 quadrillion Oreos to cover the US land mass
This figure aligns with various independent calculations and is the basis for Oreo's own sweepstakes question about how many Oreos it would take to cover the US
. Therefore, the best estimate is roughly 5.7 quadrillion Oreos to cover the United States land area in a single layer.
