Skip to main content

What Would Happen if Everyone in the World Jumped at Once?

Hypothetical and far out questions are what create great physicists and allow for us to discover and test things that have never been thought of before. Even as kids, we let our minds wander and ask questions that we never knew could be proved or disproved by physics. One question that I, as a young questioning child, and many other highly regarded physicists ask is simple; what would happen if every single person got together and jumped at once?
This situation is completely unlikely to ever happen, so the only way we could ever know what would happen is through physics.
Okay, so lets set the scene. Everyone, all 7 billion people, could fit into an area the size of Rhode Island, so lets assume that everyone did travel to the smallest state in the US. 
Finally, in unison, all 7 billion people jump. The push against the earth doesn't affect the earth at all, considering the Earth outweighs everyone by a factor of a mere 10 trillion. Even if the Earth were rigid and responded instantly, it would be pushed down by less than an atom’s width.
Next, after a split second in the air, everyone lands. Technically, this delivers a lot of energy into the Earth, but it’s spread out over a large enough area that it doesn’t do much. The only remaining affect is the sound of 7 billion pairs of feet hitting the ground; there is a loud, drawn out sound that lasts many seconds.
Eventually, people will start taking out their phones. In a matter of second, cell carriers would crash due to the overwhelming activity in a condensed area. With no means of communication, the initiation of chaos takes place. Eventually, people will want to start going home. In less than an hour, the biggest traffic jam in history will take place; completely making I-96, I-195, and I-295 useless. T. F. Green airport in Warwick, Rhode Island , assuming they got things organized and sent scouts for more fuel regularly, they, along with nearby airports and cargo ships, could run at 500% capacity for years without making a dent in the crowd.
With no way out of Rhode Island, no food, resources, and machinery (considering there will be no one in the world to operate anything), RI becomes a epicenter of extreme violence, chaos, and rapid spreading sickness. In a matter of weeks, Rhode Island will become a massive graveyard. 
So therefore, if everyone in the world got together in Rhode Island and jumped at the same time, there will be no change to the earth whatsoever, considering it will take an immensely larger amount of force to even move the Earth a few atoms width. What will occur, is absolute pandemonium and national devastation to all 7 billion inhabitants in an area of a few hundred miles. At least we now know. 

Comments

Post a Comment

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
Post a Comment
Read more

Physics Behind Drone Flight

A drone flies by using its downward thrust and forcing air in a particular direction in order to sustain a certain speed as well as a specific height. In this video my friend and I had been flying a drone at exactly 4 mph which converts to 1.788 m/s. In this project, we will be determining the forces acting upon the drone in order to sustain a consistent flight in terms of velocity and height while excluding the effects of air resitance. The drone is flying at an angle of 28˚, this is found by extending the tilted axis of the drone to the horizontal and finding the angle with a protractor. From this angle we will be able to calculate the downward thrust and the acceleration of the drone that allows it to maintain its height and velocity during flight. When the mass of the drone is taken it results in 734 grams or .734 kilograms, which will also be used for the calculations within the project. The freebody diagram pictured above will alow us to derive the force equations f
Post a Comment
Read more

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 Supersoft golf balls, but it is entirely
Post a Comment
Read more