The idea to drive the earth out of its current orbit by jumping seems
attractive but just as infeasible as the possibility of any of us withstanding
gravitation and flying out in the air. And while we are fully cognizant of the
idealistic essence behind the charismatic story about Jonathan Livingston Seagull
we are often within an ace of falling victims to well-formulated misconceptions.
Not long ago I came upon a site dedicated to World Jump Day.
It tempts the reader to take part in a mass jump on 20 July 2006 .
The aim is to push the earth out of its current orbit by the force
of jumping in order to obtain a new orbit, lessen global warming and
have a more homogenous climate. At first sight the site offers credulous
information based on a scientific research along with diagrams and even
an interview with a Prof. Hans Peter Niesward.
The information awakens curiosity but that is not all.
According to the site the necessary jumps amount to 600 000 000.
If we roughly assume that the average mass of the earth’s inhabitants
is 100 kg that would make an overall mass of 6x1011kg.
After a series of inhuman calculations one reaches the conclusion that the
kinetic energy produced by the jump would equal
75x1011 Joules or 7.5 TJ (tera-joules). 7.5 TJ is approximately 2% of the energy released
by one Megaton of TNT, which is also the size of a modern H-Bomb.
In fact, the USA has tested similar bombs, but the earth has apparently remained fixed.
The results can be explained with the fact that the Earth has a mass of 6x1024,
which means that the mass mentioned first is 10,000,000,000,000 times smaller.
Therefore the displacement brought about by everyone jumping would shift the earth
only a tiny fraction of the radius of a hydrogen atom.*
However, if we leave the laws of physics apart and make a further investigation we
would enter a cul-de-sac for contrary to the impression that www.worldjumday.org
gives, Prof. Hans Peter Niesward is apparently a mysterious figure in the web space.
Not only that, but the links with movies on the site, open a new window that disappears
almost immediately without allowing us to see any proofs.
It turns out that the arguments arouse suspicion and uncertainty rather than conviction.
Even though the aim of physics is to improve our understanding of the world by challenging
conventional notions, it can also well be used for creating attractive manipulations.
One-sided theories seem to find their way to the reader pretty easily.
That is why, it is no surprise that the number of registered jumpers is increasing with
the speed of light. And yet this misconception once again places in the limelight a global
ecological problem. It is worth remembering it…
* Based on “Ask Mad Physics”
|
