# 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:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**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, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/21 "2006-02-03T02:11:30Z")
> [@alterego](#): > > Not to mention those with extra balls. Whoops, supernumerary. But, have you seen Total Recall? =) ---
**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 3, 2006, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/22 "2006-02-03T02:36:03Z")
[Dr. Evil]Checking…checking… one, two… and three. Okay…[/Dr. Evil] ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2006, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/23 "2006-02-03T02:48:10Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > 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.) To put it another way, the mean number of balls per human male is less than two. ---
**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 3, 2006, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/24 "2006-02-03T03:27:13Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > To put it another way, the mean number of balls per human male is less than two. Well, I’d get pretty mean if I found myself with less than two. ---
**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, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/25 "2006-02-03T21:53:02Z")
Of course, you can also say that the average human has approximately one ball and one ovary. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/26 "2006-02-04T03:25:28Z")
> [@skuzzbunny](#): > > How many balls in the world? (human vs artificial) Don’t forget the brass monkey! You will need another classification since he isn’t human but maybe brass isn’t artificial either, or is it? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/27 "2006-02-04T03:37:25Z")
For purposes of this discussion, do artificial balls have to be perfectly round or can they be direct competition for real testicles? If these catch on more, the ratio is going to shift even more. [http://www.nutsfortrucks.com/](http://www.nutsfortrucks.com/) Also, there is a company that sells prosthetic testicles for (male) dogs that have been neutered to help with the inevitable psychological issues. Do artificial testicles inside an animal count as direct competition against real human testicles? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/28 "2006-02-04T04:01:06Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > For purposes of this discussion, do artificial balls have to be perfectly round… Even the gyroscope balls in Gravity probe B can’t meet that standard, and [they’re pretty darn round:](http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/f_gpb-parts.html) > [@](#): > > Each gyroscope is an almost perfect 1.5-inch sphere made of specially-fused solid quartz. The gyroscopes were painstakingly chosen and molded specially for this mission, and the spheres were polished to near-perfect roundness. If we were to enlarge these spheres to the size of the Earth, the highest peak or deepest trough would measure only 8 feet from sea level. **They are the most spherical objects in the universe** , aside from neutron stars. ---
**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 4, 2006, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589/29 "2006-02-04T04:23:34Z")
Y’know, it never even occured to me that neutron stars are the most regular “objects” in the Universe, but I suppose it’s true. What’s fascinating is that there is a very active subfield of astrophysics based entirely on their irregularities. They are not, however, more _spherical_ than Grav-B’s gyroballs, owing to their equatorial bulge. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-balls-in-the-world-human-vs-artificial/342589.md?page=1)