In the Tierra there is almost 8,000 million of Humans. It is a huge amount. And if everybody that inhabit the Earth jump at the same time? Could they generate a earthquake able to change spin speed from Tierra? Urban legend says yes, but let’s see what science says.
This hypothesis has a scientific basis. In 2011, the terrible earthquake that shook Japan and destroyed the Fukushima nuclear power plant, reached a magnitude of 9.1. According to seismologists, it accelerated the rate of the Earth’s spin, causing it to days are 1.8 microseconds shorteras explained by IFL Science.
If enough humans jumped at the same time to hit the surface of the Earth with enough force to generate a earthquake of at least magnitude 8indeed it could alter the speed of the earth. The question is: how many people would it take?
50,000 people jumping at the same time
Carrying out this experiment is impossible. We don’t even agree to decide who brings the garbage down, or to coordinate 8 billion people.
But it has been tried with a huge crowd. A few years ago, the BBC managed to 50,000 people jumped at onceto measure the “earthquake” that would provoke. You can see it in this video:
The 50,000 people jumped more or less together, and the seismographs detected the sonic wave up to 1.5 Kilometers away.
But his strength was insignificant: only a magnitude of 0.6 on the Richter scale. BBC scientists extrapolated this leap to all of humanity… and concluded that it would take 7 million times more population on Earthto generate a magnitude 8 earthquakey alter the speed of the Earth’s spin.
It is clear, then, that the urban legend is false. Another different question is to know if that leap of all humanitycould move the earth. The physicist Rhett Allain has carried out the calculation.
Allain assumed that humans weigh an average of 50 kilos (counting the children, who weigh little), and that we jump on average about 30 centimeters.
With these data, he calculated that if all the people on the planet jump at oncewould move the Earth the equivalent of one hundredth of the radius of a hydrogen atom. I mean, nothing.
And it is that, although we are many, the earth is huge. We are just little ants trying to crush a mountain with their jumps. The mountain doesn’t even notice…
So now you know, if someone asks you what would happen if all humanity jump at oncethe answer is… anything. Clearer, impossible…
