"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
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
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