Aug 12, 2009 [b]: All of the water... all of the air

Imagine every drop of water on Earth gathered into one place. Now all of the air. Is this what you imagined?

air is pink?

That water one doesn't seem right. All of the water in the world would fill up a sphere whose diameter is roughly the width of France? That's it? The oceans cover most of this planet; and oceans are more than 4 cm deep.

According to wikipedia, the Pacific ocean alone has 10,803,873,000,000 cubic kilometers of water. That's either 10 times more or 1 millions times more than what the picture shows for all of Earth's water (depending on whether you define a billion as a thousand-million or a million-million).

Either way, somebody's math was way off here. I suspect they looked at the surface area and confused it for the volume.

I agree with newtimer. That doesn't seem right at all. And come to think of it neither does the pink air.

Yeah, I agree, the graph might be skewed. Its probably not counting salt content in the ocean though. That would take up quite a bit of the whole precentage. But I agree with you guys, this picture doesnt look right

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Originally Posted by barefoot serpent air is pink?

If you look closely, you'll notice they forgot to take the water from the north polar region. It's still locked up in ice.

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Originally Posted by newtimer That water one doesn't seem right. All of the water in the world would fill up a sphere whose diameter is roughly the width of France? That's it? The oceans cover most of this planet; and oceans are more than 4 cm deep. According to wikipedia, the Pacific ocean alone has 10,803,873,000,000 cubic kilometers of water. That's either 10 times more or 1 millions times more than what the picture shows for all of Earth's water (depending on whether you define a billion as a thousand-million or a million-million). Either way, somebody's math was way off here. I suspect they looked at the surface area and confused it for the volume.

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Originally Posted by Elspode In LA, yes.

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Originally Posted by barefoot serpent air is pink?

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Originally Posted by Tick Is this what you imagined?

Link. Please.

Planet Claire?

I sort of remember another statistic that kind of surprised me a few years ago. If al the people on the planet were to stand in one place, each given a 2 foot square to stand in, we'd all fit on just a few acres of land. That's 6 billion+ people!

And one port-a-potty.

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Originally Posted by Elspode In LA, yes.

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Originally Posted by barefoot serpent air is pink?

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Originally Posted by Elspode In LA, yes.

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Originally Posted by Sheldonrs I sort of remember another statistic that kind of surprised me a few years ago. If al the people on the planet were to stand in one place, each given a 2 foot square to stand in, we'd all fit on just a few acres of land. That's 6 billion+ people!

Under population in most first world countries is creating HUGE problems for us.

Assuming two square feet, rather than a two foot square (4 square feet), that would be 12 billion square feet, or over 275000 acres. So, more than a few.

That would be about 430 square miles. or, a square a bit under 21 miles across, so maybe still a bit smaller than one might expect. About four times the original size of DC.

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Originally Posted by Sheldonrs I sort of remember another statistic that kind of surprised me a few years ago. If al the people on the planet were to stand in one place, each given a 2 foot square to stand in, we'd all fit on just a few acres of land. That's 6 billion+ people!

Hey, maybe the picture of the water is supposed to represent all of the fresh water on Earth, not the oceans. That would be all rivers, lakes, ice caps, glaciers, frozen mountain tops, reservoirs, clouds, moisture in the air, and water sitting in our toilet tanks.

Maybe. It said every drop of water, and no matter how much salt you add, it's still the same H2O.

Damn statistics again. We always have to ask the "four out of five dentists" question.

The water graph shows all the water and does it accurately, I am confident. The oceans seem deep to humans but they are a very thin layer compared to the earth. Yes, it is surprisingly little. That is the point.

Its similar to taking your rolled up freshly delivered newspaper and spreading it out one page at a time so it covers the entire yard. Or cutting up a playing card to make a stip of cardboard a couple of metres long. We're playing with dimensions here.


As for the population thing, consider the following.
An old style phone booth is somewhat less that one square metre in floor space.
Squeezed in a bit, we can fit 6 people per square metre - allowing for large well-built types as well as children and slim types.
There are 1 million square metres per square kilometre, so we can get 6 million people per square kilometre.

If we allow two vertical metres for each group of six people, we can get 500 layers of people per vertical kilometre.

Hence we can get 6 million x 500 = 3 billion people per cubic kilometre.

Given current global population of around 6.7 billion, the entire human population of the earth could be squeezed into slightly more than two cubic kilometres.

That is about one cubic mile, for you old fashioned types.

Remember, that is squished the hell in with no provision for air supply or movement or anything. Don't even think about the toilet situation!

I've also read that all the gold ever discovered on earth would make a cube 18 metres along each side.

Ok, I see what you're saying. It's not the Earth's surface, it's the entire mass for comparison. Like I said, statistics. You have to examine them further.

People get nervous sailing out of sight of land.
I aways tell them, "Ah come on! We're always within 5 miles of land!"

I always ask - can you swim 5 miles? - Answer - No. - Then don't worry about going 50 or a 100 miles offshore.

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Originally Posted by Sundae Girl "Do you hear what I'm thinking? Is it how you imagined?" Sorry, a line from one of my very favourite Neil Finn songs.

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Originally Posted by capnhowdy Link. Please.

It just looks like a very strange, colorful pair of boobies to me.

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Originally Posted by Queen of the Ryche It just looks like a very strange, colorful pair of boobies to me.

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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce And one port-a-potty.

Haggis!


"When's Hendrix playin, man? Ah been waitin 40 years, an I aint goin home til I hear Hendrix play..."