It's theoretically possible to drive around 7 billion people in less than an hour.

tysongee · 18-05-2013 7:55am #1

So if we all (7 billion people) pack into a square with each person having 1 meter squared to stand in, you can drive around it in less than an hour. I thought there was a lot more people in the world than that.

http://snapzu.com/geoleo/how-much-room-the-entire-world-population-would-take-up-if-standing-side-by-side

WhatNowForUs? · 18-05-2013 8:09am

I love these scientific non-scientific studies.

--Kaiser-- · 18-05-2013 12:46pm

A brilliant answer to a question no one asked

CrazyRabbit · 18-05-2013 3:43pm

It would be much quicker if you drove straight through them.

bnt · 18-05-2013 3:53pm

OK ... a square of area 7200 km² has sides of just under 85 km, and a square has four sides, so it has a perimeter of just under 340 km. Like they say, you'd need a Bugatti Veyron.

It's a silly construct, though, since people don't just occupy space, they use resources that require much more space to produce unsustainably today, and would require even more space to produce in a sustainable manner. That's what concerns about overpopulation are about. Whether you think we're "getting by" depends on which part of the world you're looking at - but even so, can we keep on "getting by" over the long term, as populations increase and resources are depleted?

razorblunt · 18-05-2013 5:32pm

I was expecting to see a ma-hoo-sive bus to drive them around in.

Thread disappoints.

garv123 · 18-05-2013 10:02pm

What kinda fat feckers take up a square metre each? You could cut the distance by 2/3's or 3/4's..

moc moc a moc · 18-05-2013 10:12pm

garv123 wrote: »

What kinda fat feckers take up a square metre each?

There are over 300 million Americans on the planet skewing the average.

kildara · 18-05-2013 10:16pm

If all 7 billion people stood side-by-side from Europe to America, most of them would drown

WhatNowForUs? · 18-05-2013 10:34pm

kildara wrote: »

If all 7 billion people stood side-by-side from Europe to America, most of them would drown

Where did you get that statistic from. Your just making it up arnt ya.

Nabber · 18-05-2013 10:48pm

1 person would die every 1.8 seconds, so you'd wanna be fast about it

flutterflye · 18-05-2013 11:05pm

Nabber wrote: »

1 person would die every 1.8 seconds, so you'd wanna be fast about it

People are probably born at a similar rate, so it'd probably even out.

Pie Man · 19-05-2013 12:01am

There would be no traffic, so i'd say I could do it in 20 min.

Profiler · 19-05-2013 10:26am

flutterflye wrote: »

People are probably born at a similar rate, so it'd probably even out.

If that were the case then the population of the planet would neither be falling nor increasing, however...

There was:

4 billion people in 1974
5 billion people in 1987
6 billion people in 1999
7 billion people in 2011
It is projected we will see the 8th billion person by 2025

So the birth rate is clearly outstripping the death rate, quite significantly.

flutterflye · 19-05-2013 10:46am

Profiler wrote: »

If that were the case then the population of the planet would neither be falling nor increasing, however...

There was:

4 billion people in 1974
5 billion people in 1987
6 billion people in 1999
7 billion people in 2011
It is projected we will see the 8th billion person by 2025

So the birth rate is clearly outstripping the death rate, quite significantly.

Well then I guess it doesn't matter so much about taking the people dying into account.

Also, I knew that our population was increasing, but I didn't realise it was that much in only 40 years! That's mad!

keithsfleet · 19-05-2013 10:54am

I'm gonna have the 8 millionth child and there's nothing you can do about it.

19-05-2013 10:57am

It's probably theoretically possible for me to fart my way to the moon, but doesn't mean it's scientifically true.

spurious · 19-05-2013 11:00am

The space all the people in the world would take up used to be the size of the Isle of Wight when I was at school, so it has increased a lot.

newmug · 19-05-2013 11:02am

Profiler wrote: »

If that were the case then the population of the planet would neither be falling nor increasing, however...

There was:

4 billion people in 1974
5 billion people in 1987
6 billion people in 1999
7 billion people in 2011
It is projected we will see the 8th billion person by 2025

So the birth rate is clearly outstripping the death rate, quite significantly.

And I thought the Chinese "1 child family" policy had sorted all that out! Boy was I wrong!!!

Daniel2590 · 19-05-2013 11:14am

keithsfleet wrote: »

I'm gonna have the 8 millionth child and there's nothing you can do about it.

I'm afraid someone's beaten you to that by quite a bit.

TheIrishGrover · 19-05-2013 11:46am

Well, if you put them into 1/m^3 cubes........ and stacked them on top of each other you'd walk around in a few seconds...... Even better

bnt · 19-05-2013 11:55am

newmug wrote: »

And I thought the Chinese "1 child family" policy had sorted all that out! Boy was I wrong!!!

Especially considering that the Chinese "1 child family" policy didn't apply in India, or Bangladesh, Nigeria or the Gaza Strip. China's population growth rate is now one of the lowest - but it's still ~ 0.5% a year.

TheIrishGrover wrote: »

Well, if you put them into 1/m^3 cubes........ and stacked them on top of each other you'd walk around in a few seconds...... Even better

If you did that, only the 7-8 thousand at the bottom would be able to breath. There may be more humane ways of solving the population problem.

How about stacking the small cubes in to a bigger cube? Then it would be more like 90 minutes at a brisk walk, to get around it. The cube would have sides of just over 1.9 km, so the perimeter would be about 7.7 km.
(calculated assuming a total population of 7.2 billion)

newmug · 19-05-2013 1:37pm

bnt wrote: »

Especially considering that the Chinese "1 child family" policy didn't apply in India, or Bangladesh, Nigeria or the Gaza Strip. China's population growth rate is now one of the lowest

The Gaza Strip? Are they trying to out-breed their invaders?

bnt · 19-05-2013 3:20pm

newmug wrote: »

The Gaza Strip? Are they trying to out-breed their invaders?

Without wishing to politicise this thread, the late Yasser Arafat was quoted as saying "we will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion", calling the wombs of Palestinian women a "biological weapon". So the short answer to the question is "yes".

Prof Nincom Poop Ph.D · 19-05-2013 3:39pm

newmug wrote: »

And I thought the Chinese "1 child family" policy had sorted all that out! Boy was I wrong!!!

bnt wrote: »

Especially considering that the Chinese "1 child family" policy didn't apply in India, or Bangladesh, Nigeria or the Gaza Strip. China's population growth rate is now one of the lowest - but it's still ~ 0.5% a year.

Not to mention they ended up with something like 20 million more males as everyone wanted a boy.

oppenheimer1 · 19-05-2013 3:57pm

bnt wrote: »

OK ... a square of area 7200 km² has sides of just under 85 km, and a square has four sides, so it has a perimeter of just under 340 km. Like they say, you'd need a Bugatti Veyron.

It's a silly construct, though, since people don't just occupy space, they use resources that require much more space to produce unsustainably today, and would require even more space to produce in a sustainable manner. That's what concerns about overpopulation are about. Whether you think we're "getting by" depends on which part of the world you're looking at - but even so, can we keep on "getting by" over the long term, as populations increase and resources are depleted?

You wouldn't be able to do it in a Veyron as you would be constantly stopping for fuel.

Eric Cartman · 19-05-2013 6:01pm

thinly veiled attempt by delaware to organise a big orgy...

baalthor · 19-05-2013 6:33pm

bnt wrote: »

Without wishing to politicise this thread, the late Yasser Arafat was quoted as saying "we will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion", calling the wombs of Palestinian women a "biological weapon". So the short answer to the question is "yes".

The birth rate of the Ultra Orthodox Jews in Israel is much higher - around 6 children per woman

I remember when the 5 billionth child was born - the UN picked a girl born in Yugoslavia to mark the "event" - I guess it was a hopeful gesture to recognise a country where people with many differing languages, religions and alphabets could live together in harmony ...

bnt · 19-05-2013 8:05pm

baalthor wrote: »

The birth rate of the Ultra Orthodox Jews in Israel is much higher - around 6 children per woman

It's not a competition ... or if it is, it's one that will have no winners, only losers.

Capt'n Midnight · 20-05-2013 12:43pm

Why do they need 1m2 each ??

http://www.gkstill.com/Support/crowd-density/625sm/Density6.html

Dfmnoc · 20-05-2013 12:54pm

What heat would be generated in the center of the square?

Would the CO2 generated in the square out do the oxygen levels so much that it would wipe out a high percentage of the square.

It's theoretically possible to drive around 7 billion people in less than an hour.

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