What If Everyone On Earth Jumped At The Same Time?
October 19, 2020
I’m sure you have heard the question once or twice “What if every single person on earth jumped at the same time?”. To put this question into perspective, there are roughly 7 billion people on this planet; together we would weigh around 800 billion pounds. You would think that 800 billion pounds would be enough to make at least a small dent in the earth, but no. According to physicist Rhett Alain from Southeastern Louisiana University, because of how spread out the population of the world is, we would make absolutely no impact on the earth. Because of the spherical shape of the earth, all of our impacts from jumping would cancel each other out.
Well, what if the whole world congregated in one spot on the earth? Although unrealistic, it is a very interesting concept. Again, after doing many complicated calculations Alain found that if every single person jumped and landed at the same time, the earth would move a hundredth of the radius of a single hydrogen atom, small impact right?
Now would this affect our planet or change the course of our existence? No, according to Alain. When all of us land on the ground after jumping, the earth would actually move back to where it was in the beginning. He explained that the earth moves is like a spring: when you pull on both sides then let go, the masses of each side will pull back together, the smaller mass moves much more than the larger mass, but both move. Humans are the smaller mass and the earth is the larger mass, gravity is the spring in this scenario.
It really puts into perspective how powerful the earth is and how little impact we have.
