# How many balls in the world? (human vs artificial) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 1, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589 "2006-02-01T23:14:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![skuzzbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@skuzzbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skuzzbunny)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/1 "2006-02-01T23:14:33Z")
Yes, this is a rather silly and pointless question, but it just popped into my head one day, and I just have no clue how I could go about figuring it out with my limited expertise and resources. I just want to know, which is greater? The approximate number of human testicles in the world today, or the approximate number of artificial balls of (almost) any kind in the world today. Testicles I am counting individually, not by the pair. By balls I am referring to any artificial (man made, but not necessarily synthetic) spheroid (other than testicles) which would comonly be reffered to as “a ball” in everyday speech, not just any sphere. Counted would be baseballs and other sports balls (I’ll include footballs), meatballs, cannonballs, crystal balls, etc. etc. etc. Not included would be cocoa puffs, eyeballs, Lucielle Ball, large social dances, globes, marbles, etc. etc. For the sake of competition i’m throwing out certain balls that are produced in extreeme numbers that will completely throw the results, such as Buckey balls…as wells as, I am assuming, ball berings, but I’d love to see numbers on those as well just in case. I am of course not looking for exact numbers, but I very much want to get as accurate a comparison as possible, as far as an average approximation. Hoping someone doesn’t think this is TOO dumb to investigate, Much thanks! ~Rev. Elgaroo Brenza ---
**Author:** ![StewieGriffin420](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@StewieGriffin420](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StewieGriffin420)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/2 "2006-02-01T23:19:30Z")
> [@skuzzbunny](#): > > Yes, this is a rather silly and pointless question, but it just popped into my head one day, and I just have no clue how I could go about figuring it out with my limited expertise and resources. > > I just want to know, which is greater? The approximate number of human testicles in the world today, or the approximate number of artificial balls of (almost) any kind in the world today. Testicles I am counting individually, not by the pair. By balls I am referring to any artificial (man made, but not necessarily synthetic) spheroid (other than testicles) which would comonly be reffered to as “a ball” in everyday speech, not just any sphere. Counted would be baseballs and other sports balls (I’ll include footballs), meatballs, cannonballs, crystal balls, etc. etc. etc. Not included would be cocoa puffs, eyeballs, Lucielle Ball, large social dances, globes, marbles, etc. etc. For the sake of competition i’m throwing out certain balls that are produced in extreeme numbers that will completely throw the results, such as Buckey balls…as wells as, I am assuming, ball berings, but I’d love to see numbers on those as well just in case. I am of course not looking for exact numbers, but I very much want to get as accurate a comparison as possible, as far as an average approximation. > > Hoping someone doesn’t think this is TOO dumb to investigate, > Much thanks! > ~Rev. Elgaroo Brenza Can I buy some pot from you? ---
**Author:** ![PetW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@PetW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PetW)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/3 "2006-02-01T23:20:21Z")
I have no idea where we could get actual figures, but as a WAG I’d say there’s definitely more artificial balls than natural balls. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/4 "2006-02-01T23:32:19Z")
It is pretty obvious to me that there are more artificial balls. Think about ball bearings for example. The average first world person would own machines ranging from cars to ceiling fans that have dozens of them. There are way more in industrial use. If you count carefully, I wouldn’t be suprised if the average person owns hundreds of balls or more. Let’s see: Thay’s 1. ball bearings 1. baseballs 2. basketballs 3. beanballs 4. blackballs 5. blowballs 6. brandyballs 7. broomballs 8. buckyballs 9. butterballs 10. buttonball 11. cannonballs 12. cornballs 13. earthballs 14. eyeballs 15. fastballs 16. fireballs 17. foosballs 18. footballs 19. forkballs 20. fuzzballs 21. goofballs 22. greaseballs 23. gum balls 24. hair balls 25. handballs 26. hardballs 27. heelballs 28. highballs 29. kickballs 30. kimballs 31. knuckleballs 32. lowballs 33. meatballs 34. moorballs 35. mothball 36. netballs 37. oddballs 38. paddleballs 39. paintballs 40. pinballs 41. puffballs 42. punchballs 43. pushballs 44. racquetballs 45. screwballs 46. skunkballs 47. slimeballs 48. snowballs 49. softballs 50. sourballs 51. speedballs 52. spitballs 53. stickballs 54. stinkballs 55. stoolballs 56. tetherballs 57. trackballs 58. trapballs 59. volleyballs ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/5 "2006-02-01T23:33:38Z")
Just looking at [Ball Bearing Production in the U.S.](http://www.bis.doc.gov/DefenseIndustrialBasePrograms): > [@](#): > > Regular precision ball bearing production capacity increased from 191 million bearings in 1987 to 285 million bearings in 1991. If we kept up the 91 production figure for 10 years, that’d be 2.85 billion balls. Other countrys make ball bearings too. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/6 "2006-02-01T23:44:06Z")
As for the biological balls: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the world population as of today is 6,495,100,079. Approximately 49% of those are male. Assuming two balls per male, that gives a figure of 6,365,198,076. This figure must be reduced a bit to allow for balls lost through accident or surgery, or absent at birth, but my WAG is that this percentage is pretty small. (The percentage of supernumerary balls, I’ll wager, is negligible.) ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/7 "2006-02-01T23:46:59Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > (The percentage of supernumerary balls, I’ll wager, is negligible.) You forgot to factor in Chuck Norris. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/8 "2006-02-02T00:05:58Z")
Golf balls alone: > [@](#): > > Today, the golf ball market is worth around $550 million in annual sales, with over 850 million golf balls being manufactured and shipped every year. From [http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Golf-Ball.html](http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Golf-Ball.html) I don’t know what the average lifetime of a golf ball is (I would suggest it still counts even when it’s been lost in the rough or is at the bottom of a water hazard), but there might even be more golf balls alone than testicles. And how about malted milk balls … ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/9 "2006-02-02T01:02:31Z")
**skuzzbunny** , sweety, you have waaaay too much time on your hands… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/10 "2006-02-02T01:11:21Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > If we kept up the 91 production figure for 10 years, that’d be 2.85 billion balls. Other countrys make ball bearings too. And most ball bearings include more than one ball. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/11 "2006-02-02T01:16:05Z")
Anyone else suddenly singing “Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder”? …Meatballs, fishballs, mothballs, cannonballs Come on in, the chowder’s fine! ---
**Author:** ![Susie\_Derkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Susie\_Derkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susie_Derkins)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/12 "2006-02-02T01:29:01Z")
Man, I have balls all around the house and not a one of them are human. ( ☹ ) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/13 "2006-02-02T09:22:15Z")
I have heard it said that a measure of our advancement as a technological race can be considered proportional to the number of _motors_ we own - motors in fridges, cameras, food processors, toothbrushes, even little vibrating motors in our cellphones. But I have to say I like this one better: We are advanced, because we have _balls_. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/14 "2006-02-02T16:24:23Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > And most ball bearings include more than one ball. I’d think _all_ ball bearings include at least 3 balls. You can’t support an axle with 2 balls. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/15 "2006-02-02T17:04:18Z")
> [@skuzzbunny](#): > > Not included would be … Lucielle Ball Can’t imagine why. Didn’t she get Desi’s in the divorce? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/16 "2006-02-02T20:41:15Z")
> [@](#): > > I’d think all ball bearings include at least 3 balls. You can’t support an axle with 2 balls. Although “ball bearing” should properly refer to the whole bearing, I have seen te individual balls themselves called “ball bearings”, as well. And it should be noted that the world’s largest ball bearing, which supports the 40 meter telescope at Green Bank National Radio Observatory, consists of only a single ball. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/17 "2006-02-02T20:53:48Z")
Boy, I really haven’t had such a great laugh for a while. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/18 "2006-02-02T21:13:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Although “ball bearing” should properly refer to the whole bearing, I have seen te individual balls themselves called “ball bearings”, as well. Good point. It’s very possible the production figures quoted above refer to the number of balls produced, not bearing assemblies. > [@](#): > > And it should be noted that the world’s largest ball bearing, which supports the 40 meter telescope at Green Bank National Radio Observatory, consists of only a single ball. Isn’t that a [ball-and-socket joint](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball-and-socket_joint)? I thought “ball bearing” only refers to [rolling-element bearings](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling-element_bearing). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/19 "2006-02-03T00:29:44Z")
Well, it’s not exactly in a socket (the section of the ball encased is far less than half the ball), but it does probably bear a lot closer kinship to a ball-and-socket than to the usual notion of a ball bearing. It is, however, definitely a bearing, and it’s indubitably a ball, and indeed it is mighty large. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/20 "2006-02-03T02:10:26Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > This figure must be reduced a bit to allow for balls lost through accident or surgery, or absent at birth, but my WAG is that this percentage is pretty small. (The percentage of supernumerary balls, I’ll wager, is negligible.) Not to mention those with extra balls. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589.md?page=2)