Difference between revisions of "Size of humankind"
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| − | How large is humankind in ''volume''? | + | How large is humankind in ''volume''? Surely we're many, so our volume must be huge, isn't it? |
It seems from [http://www.wolframalpha.com Wolfram Alpha] that the average human volume is around 66.4 liters. | It seems from [http://www.wolframalpha.com Wolfram Alpha] that the average human volume is around 66.4 liters. | ||
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Therefore all humankind is [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=66.4+liters+*+6.93E09 4.602 * 10^11 liters of stuff], which correspond to '''a cube with a side of 772 meters''' or a sphere with slightly less than 1 km diameter. | Therefore all humankind is [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=66.4+liters+*+6.93E09 4.602 * 10^11 liters of stuff], which correspond to '''a cube with a side of 772 meters''' or a sphere with slightly less than 1 km diameter. | ||
| − | This roughly corresponds to a small | + | This roughly corresponds to couple of hills or a small lake. There is plenty of icebergs larger than that. We would be barely a blip on a map of the planet: {{en|Lake Garda}} in Italy is more than 100 times larger. Wolfram Alpha tells us that it's 0.92 times the water in the Sydney Harbour, but it hardly seems suggestive to me, perhaps because I'm not Australian. |
Revision as of 13:28, 6 February 2011
How large is humankind in volume? Surely we're many, so our volume must be huge, isn't it?
It seems from Wolfram Alpha that the average human volume is around 66.4 liters. The current human population is 6.93 billion people.
Therefore all humankind is 4.602 * 10^11 liters of stuff, which correspond to a cube with a side of 772 meters or a sphere with slightly less than 1 km diameter.
This roughly corresponds to couple of hills or a small lake. There is plenty of icebergs larger than that. We would be barely a blip on a map of the planet: Lake Garda in Italy is more than 100 times larger. Wolfram Alpha tells us that it's 0.92 times the water in the Sydney Harbour, but it hardly seems suggestive to me, perhaps because I'm not Australian.