# Chinese Jump...Big Tidal Wave?!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-jump-big-tidal-wave/225068>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 18, 2004, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-jump-big-tidal-wave/225068 "2004-01-18T06:16:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ice97531](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@Ice97531](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice97531)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-jump-big-tidal-wave/225068/1 "2004-01-18T06:16:42Z")

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I once heard that if all the people in china jumped at once, a rediulously huge tidal wave would come and cover most of California if not more ☹  
You have to be kidding me, right? 😕😕😕 Maybe instead of buying bombs and wasting millions of dollars we could all just jump and take out Japan! :smack:

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**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-jump-big-tidal-wave/225068/2 "2004-01-18T06:21:02Z")

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[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_155](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_155)

That should give you a basic idea of the idea.

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**Author:** ![gluteus\_maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f17d59/32.png) [@gluteus\_maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gluteus_maximus)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-jump-big-tidal-wave/225068/3 "2004-01-18T06:24:28Z")

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No, no, no… it wouldn’t cause a tidal wave… the Earth’s orbit would be changed, and within a few years, we would fall into the Sun.

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**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-jump-big-tidal-wave/225068/4 "2004-01-18T06:33:57Z")

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Is that when the Vulcans are planning to take over? 😉

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**Author:** ![gluteus\_maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f17d59/32.png) [@gluteus\_maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gluteus_maximus)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-jump-big-tidal-wave/225068/5 "2004-01-18T06:43:32Z")

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Mr. **duffer** , report to the brig immediately.

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**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-jump-big-tidal-wave/225068/6 "2004-01-18T06:44:41Z")

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Damn, I knew I was pushing my luck _cower_ :eek:

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**Author:** ![headshok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@headshok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/headshok)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-jump-big-tidal-wave/225068/7 "2004-01-18T07:16:40Z")

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Well, I’ve heard that all the people on earth would fit into a cube about 2.5 miles on each side. Assuming a world population of 6 billion and a Chinese populations of 1.3 billion, that works out to a cube ~1.5 miles on each side (it’s late, so my math may be incorrect). An asteroid that big hitting the ocean would cause a pretty big tidal wave. Of course, there is the small matter of convincing the Chinese people to get into a gigantic cube, and then driving said cube into the ocean at 30,000 miles per hour. Still, I guess it’s theoretically possible.

The question I’ve always had, though, is: If the Chinese all farted at the same time, would it cause the polar ice caps to melt?

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**Author:** ![headshok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@headshok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/headshok)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-jump-big-tidal-wave/225068/8 "2004-01-18T07:27:40Z")

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Hmm, now that I think of it, asteroids are usually made up of iron and nickel and whatnot, which is probably denser than the average human, so we probably need to take that into account. I’m not going to do it, though. 🙂