Skip to main content

Extra Credit Blog

"What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant?" -Thomas Bennett (and many others)

The question has been proposed many, many times. But what would actually occur if this phenomenon were to take place? The answer lies in the work of Rhett Allain, a professor of physics at Southeastern Louisiana University, and the author of the Wired magazine science blog, Dot Physics. 

Some known facts about the Earth that are essential in solving for this "experience" are as followed:
- The population of Earth, (in the year 2016) was 7.442 billion
- The average weight of the entire human population would equal about 316 million tons or 632 billion pounds *If everyone in the world were to report to Rhode Island using the T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, RI, the airport could run at 500% capacity for YEARS without even making a dent in the crowd...*
- The average weight of the human person is about 80.7 kg according to a public health article. But in this case being generous and all, and factoring in children and such, we will call the average human weight 60 kg
- The mass of Earth is about 5.972 x 10^24 kg
-  Gravitational field (constant at about 9.807 m/s^2)
- There are other factors that make this equation inaccurate, such as the Earth's relationship with the Sun/Moon/other external or internal forces

*Assuming there are no external forces on the system (Earth and people being the system)*
- Momentum and Energy are conserved, they do not change throughout the experiment



Effects if the experiment were to ever take place:
1) There would be a very loud booming sound. In fact, our pain threshold as human beings for sound is 120 decibels. The sound produced by this massive bang would shatter ear drums at a massive 200 decibels, the loudest possible sound ever created by Earth
2) The ground would begin to shake, this could involuntarily trigger a massive earthquake at the 4-8 magnitude range, or a tsunami with waves up to 100 feet tall if near the coastline


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Physics of Black Holes...Or Lack Thereof

Isabella Jacavone To comprehend how the universe works, we must dwell into the most basic building blocks of existence; matter, energy, space, and time. NASA's  Physics of the Cosmos program involves cosmology, astrophysics, and fundamental physics intended to answer questions about the elusiveness of complex concepts such as black holes, neutron stars, dark energy, and gravitational waves. In this blog post, I'd like to elaborate on a subject that is very intriguing  to me; Black holes. And more specifically, what would happen if we got near one. A black hole is anything but a hole, but rather an immense amount of matter compacted into an extremely small area. A black hole is caused when, hypothetically, a star four times more massive than our sun collapses into a sphere no bigger than 600 square km. To put that in perspective, that's about the size of New York City. B lack holes were predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, which showed that when a...

Physics of Sound Dampeners and Active Noise Cancellation

Physics of Sound Dampeners and Active Noise Cancellation Sound dampening foam panels in a recording studio. ANC headphones worn by pilots and/or passengers in consumer aviation aircraft.  Acoustic treatment of soundscapes has grown alongside the sound production industry. Whether through absorption panels, diffusors and cloud panels to treat a space or headphones placed directly over the ears of listeners, acoustic treatment comes in many forms. Environments are treated acoustically to absorb excess sound to prevent sound levels from crossing a threshold above which the desired goal cannot be had. Before getting into sound dampening, we must discuss sound. Sound is produced when an object vibrates (a form of oscillation) and temporarily displaces nearby air molecules causing a wave effect as the displaced molecules collide with their neighboring molecules. Sound waves are fluctuations in pressure as the initial displacement of molecules experiences collisions that in ...

Aerodynamics of a Golf Ball

One may wonder how a small golf ball can travel at incredibly high speeds for such long distances.  While the swing of the club is a major component, the structure of the golf ball is quite important.  Unlike a baseball or tennis ball, a golf ball has dimples all over it (usually 336 dimples).  These dimples allow the golf ball to travel without facing much air resistance.  This diagram shows how air travels around the golf ball. The dimples on the golf ball also prevent drag that would occur in the wake region, resulting in further distance.  Also due to the contact with the club during the swing, the golf ball has backspin during its entire flight.  This diagram shows the motion of the golf ball mid flight with the lift force of F. There are hundreds of different types of golf balls that a player can choose.  Some show little affect to a player's game while others can alter their performance completely.  Personally, I prefer Callaway Supers...