# jumping people revisited **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 7, 2001, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261 "2001-09-07T17:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2001, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/1 "2001-09-07T17:08:39Z")
A while back Cecil wrote a column responding to a question about what would happen if everyone in China jumped off their chairs at once. In a related vein comes this story ( [http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010907/sc/life\_britain\_jump\_dc\_3.html](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010907/sc/life_britain_jump_dc_3.html) ), culled from today’s headlines. I guess we now have a small scale answer to the question. ---
**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:** [September 8, 2001, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/2 "2001-09-08T22:12:15Z")
Is anyone else wondering what the article meant by “75,000 tons of energy”? If we take the later figure of two billion Joules[sup]\*[/sup], then 75,000 seems too low for the number to be referring to kilograms of TNT, and it’s too high to be referring to E=mc[sup]2[/sup]. Anyone know of any other ways to measure energy in tons? \*Given the figure of 20 jumps per minute (suspiciously low) and 110 pounds per kid, this means each jump is about 20 cm, so the figure in Joules is probably reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Carpenter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Mr\_Carpenter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Carpenter)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2001, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/3 "2001-09-09T01:46:46Z")
It did n’t work. All those kids jumping didn’t make a difference to Mother Earth, so they had no Earth Quake. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2001, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/4 "2001-09-09T16:14:14Z")
It’s about 55,000 US tons, 49,000 Imperial tons, or 50,000 metric tons of children. (One wonders whether that “average 110 pounds” really means “average 50 kg”, which is, of course, not necessarily the same thing.) ---
**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:** [September 9, 2001, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/5 "2001-09-09T19:44:09Z")
Well, they said “weighing 110 pounds each”, not “massing”, so I’ll take that at face value. Besides, at the precision given, and assuming standard Earth-surface gravity, 50 kilograms is 110 pounds. ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2001, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/6 "2001-09-15T00:06:28Z")
I’d just like to point out that scales generally work the same way, whether calibrated in metric or english units. And if it is a conversion from metric units, the original almost certainly said “weighing an average of 50 kg.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2001, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/7 "2001-09-15T13:23:40Z")
But without an explicit tolerance, “about 50 kg” is not the same thing as “about 110 pounds”. ---
**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:** [September 16, 2001, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/8 "2001-09-16T22:32:38Z")
Why does the tolerance need to be explicit? All numbers given in the article are to only two significant figures. In fact, almost all numbers given in any newspaper article are to only two significant figures. I think that we’re justified in assuming that the implicit tolerance here is two significant figures… In which case 50 kg is 110 pounds. Unless you’re arguing that they should only have kept one, and called it 100 pounds? I’m still wondering about the tons. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/9 "2001-09-17T12:20:21Z")
You’re assuming two significant figures. But “50 kg” could be only one (given the source). ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2024, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/10 "2024-04-16T16:35:05Z")
I realize this is a heck of a bump but XKCD just put out a YouTube video on this question and noted Cecil’s article but claims they do not tell the whole story. 4 minutes long: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/p2M8Y0z9Rl0/maxresdefault.jpg "What if everyone jumped at once?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2M8Y0z9Rl0) ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2024, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/11 "2024-09-13T19:48:46Z")
I have heard this before Time magazine 1969 > **[Science: Great Leap Downward](https://time.com/archive/6874841/science-great-leap-downward/)** > > Several hundred million peasants will rise like a mighty storm, a force so swift and violent that no power, however great, will be able to hold it back.—Mao Tse-tung, March 1927 Was the... ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2024, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/12 "2024-09-13T19:52:16Z")
I really don’t think a symbolic “rising up of The People” has anything to do with the physical actions described in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2024, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/13 "2024-09-13T23:48:09Z")
The article refers to a ‘tongue in cheek’ event of what would happen if all Chinese people simultaneously jumped off of 6.5 ft platforms. Is that not what the physical actions are described in this thread? ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2024, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/14 "2024-09-23T19:04:43Z")
The thread title reminded me of a character in Twin Peaks called the Jumping Man, who is seldom seen but unforgettable. He inhabits the room above the old general store where The Arm and Bob and several other weirdos hang out and talk about Garmonbozia and linoleum and other cryptic things in strange backwards speech. He has white makeup and a long pointed nose, and spends his time climbing up on a low step stool and jumping off, over and over. My theory is he heard about the theory of how jumping people could send the earth out of its orbit if they do it just right, so he keeps trying. Of course it never works but he can’t quit. Any David Lynch fans reading this? ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2024, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jumping-people-revisited/80261/15 "2024-09-24T18:38:03Z")
[![](https://i.postimg.cc/25cMLjL8/cecil-adams.jpg) ](https://i.postimg.cc/25cMLjL8/cecil-adams.jpg)