It's your turn again to answer your fellow readers' urgent questions
Posted 10.24.2008 at 10:25 am
6 Comments
Jump!
pfala (injured) (CC Licensed)
Leonard Monroe wonders: "What would happen if everyone in the world were to jump and land at the same time?"
Post your answer in the comments.
Submit your science and technology questions to fyi@popsci.com.
6 Comments
To comment, please Login.
138 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Innovation Challenges
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
.jpg)
February 2012: The Future of Fun
Science is reinventing play, from extreme sports to gamification to ridiculous roller coasters to the playgrounds of tomorrow, and this issue is chock full of fun. Also, on a less fun note: Did global warming destroy my hometown?
Popular on Popsci
Most Viewed
Science
- Gallery: The Best Way to Unbuild a Dam
- This Week in the Future, February 6-10, 2012
- The Most Amazing Science Images of the Week, February 6-10, 2012
- Images of the Week, February 6-10, 2012
- A Smartphone That Detects Whether Its User Is Depressed
- Found: The Oldest Animal Ever on Planet Earth
- Video Microscopy Unveils the Tricks of Nature's Toughest Glue, Oozed By a Bacterium
- 3-D Laser Maps Show How Major Quakes Rend the Earth
- Doctors Grow Parkinsonian Human Brain Cells In Vitro, Shedding Light on the Genetics of the Disease
- An Oral History of Extreme Sports
Most Emailed
Science
- This Week in the Future, February 6-10, 2012
- The Most Amazing Science Images of the Week, February 6-10, 2012
- Images of the Week, February 6-10, 2012
- A Smartphone That Detects Whether Its User Is Depressed
- Found: The Oldest Animal Ever on Planet Earth
- Video Microscopy Unveils the Tricks of Nature's Toughest Glue, Oozed By a Bacterium
- 3-D Laser Maps Show How Major Quakes Rend the Earth
- Doctors Grow Parkinsonian Human Brain Cells In Vitro, Shedding Light on the Genetics of the Disease
- An Oral History of Extreme Sports
- 200,000-Year-Old Patch of Seagrass Is the World's Oldest Living Organism
Most Commented
Science
- Russian Scientists Drilling into "Alien" Antarctic Lake Vostok Fall Silent
- 10-Year-Old Accidentally Creates New Molecule in Science Class
- Should Scientists Be Held Legally Responsible for Their Results?
- Hilarious "Theory of Everything" Paper Provokes Kerfuffle
- FYI: Do Animals Dream?
- New Climate Change Culprit: Chilean Man Stealing Glaciers to Put In Cocktails
- The Best Way to Unbuild a Dam
- Zapping Testicles With Ultrasonic Pulses Shown To Be Effective Contraceptive
- MIT Scientist Offers $100,000 to Anyone Who Can Prove Quantum Computing Is Impossible
- Found: The Oldest Animal Ever on Planet Earth
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2009 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
from Laurel, MD
It would make some noise, and we would all have wasted a few seconds of our life.
we did this problem in physics class with an average weight of 200kg i think(yes we made it large). if all the people are in the same area, the earth moves a ridiculously tiny amount in the opposite direction, then the gravity pulling the people back undoes that movement. so all we would accomplish is a world record...as long as the ground is stable enough at that location, which would be large for the population of the earth.
you missed it!
http://www.worldjumpday.org/
well earth's mass is 6e24 kg, humanity has 6e9 souls @ ~75 kg giving a mass of 4.5e11
you could work out the momentum (p=mv) of earth with its speed orbiting our sun... and assume a jumping height of 10 cm for each human and get a total sum of momentums for the system... you could figure out the distribution of each jolt by continental density and how it was aligned in the rotation at the time of the jump causing more effect if the resultant force is opposing our path through space. you could even factor in the material properties of the underlying rock to absorb or transmit the energy...
but you know what??? earth is 14,000,000,000,000 (14 trillion) times more heavy than humanity... thats like 1 child jumping up and down on Mount Everest and expecting it to crumble.
people are reasonable distributed around the world so if jumping did any thing it would cancel it self out.
from Sao Paulo, SP
Here's my take on this:
If you got every human to jump at the same time it would be a great sign. If you got every single human to do something as simple as jumping up at the same time, you could ask them to do other stuff like helping the guy next to you, or sharing a meal. This by far would have more implications than the simple act of jumping.
So my answer is, you wouldn't phisically move planet Earth but you would surely move the world in a new direction.
How inspiring, but if I could get everyone in the world to do something it would be to send me a dollar.