jumping in unison

How much effect would two billion people jumping at one time, in unison, have on the earth? Earthquakes? Falling out of orbit? Absolutely nothing?

How about almost two billion?

Work = force * distance, and force = mass * acc, so potential energy = mass * acc * distance. A 70KG adult
jumping from a 1/2 meter chair in a 9.8m/sec^2 gravity field releases 340 joules of energy. Two billion of these would release 6.8x10^11 joules, which is equivalent to an explosion involving 0.16 kilotons of TNT (way smaller than the Hiroshima bomb)

How much energy in an earthquake? I was under the impression that even a small earthquake packed way more energy than a nuke.

I think you want your 2 billion people to form a large circle surrounding their target. :slight_smile: Then when they all jump, they’ll launch a surface wave inwards, and the wave will grow very large because it’s focused on a small area.

This is like the “duck-annoying museum fountain”

http://amasci.com/hoax.html#duck