LIGO: Laser Interferometer Gravity-wave Observatory.
[link-o]

A couple of four kilometer long tunnels, situated at ninety degrees to one another on a horizontal plane, measure the differences in lengths of time that two cohesive beams of light take to return to their respective starting point in order to detect gravity waves.

Very cool.

I can't help wonder if we might be able to help these fine folks out in their experiment by participating in the first collective human endeavor since the time that there were only two of us.
With atomic clocks it is possible to very accurately have an event happen simultaneously world wide if that certain moment is anticipated by all and counted down like New Year.

Ok, so now this gets a bit sketchy because I don't know if the physics behind this idea is shite.

If, at a give instant, all of humanity decided en-masse to jump, the mass of the planet would be decreased by 420 Billion kilograms or so, and may produce a measurable wave for the people manning LIGO.
Or would the second thermodynamic law prevent this because of the force exerted to launch 420 billion kilograms?
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Apr 26 2009

http://www.ligo.cal...edu/LIGO_web/about/ [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Apr 26 2009]

Beer and Ice Cream diet http://astro.berkel...jokes/icecream.html
based on the same physics [pashute, Sep 17 2014]

a totally ridiculous proposal = [+]
-- xenzag, Apr 27 2009


//how much damage to the Earth might be caused by a 420 billion kilo impact// - "none at all" is the phrase that springs to mind, if the 'impact' is reasonably evenly spread over the surface of the Earth.

//the mass of the planet would be decreased by 420 Billion kilograms or so// - if the mass of the Earth is about 6x10^24kg, this is a decrease of about 1x10^-11%, so, not very much, and if the force imparted to the planet by everyone jumping is distributed over the surface, the net force on the planet will be zero.
-- hippo, Apr 27 2009


//this is a decrease of about 1x10^-11%// - not even that, as the people do not jump very far out of the gravity well (~30cm?).

Getting all of the worlds population to join a communal effort might solve some other problems along the way, though.
-- loonquawl, Apr 27 2009


A chain of people from the Gaza strip all the way to Jerusalem couldn't move the relatively large mass of one person named Arik Sharon from his pullout plan.

A two million people human chain from 1989, which gave Latvia Estonia and Lithuania their independence is now seemingly dissolving away twenty five years later (2014)

In 2004, millions of Taiwanese made no impact on anyone at all, except an honorary mention in Wikipedia.

Nor did millions of Tamils protesting in India make a difference in 2009, or millions of Indians in Kerala, protesting their government's free trade area policy during the same year.

In 2013 the Catalan Way demonstration made a mark in Spanish politics, but it seems that the 'dent' has popped back.

Conclusion: Getting all the worlds population to join a communal effort might raise many other waves along the way, though.
-- pashute, Sep 14 2014


//If, at a give instant, all of humanity decided en- masse to jump, the mass of the planet would be decreased by 420 Billion kilograms or so//

Why? Or, to put it another way - why?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 14 2014


Why, because the physics behind this idea is shite.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 14 2014


Ah.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 14 2014


//the problem, as I see it, would be the risk of how much damage to the Earth might be caused by a 420 billion kilo impact//

[21] When you average it out, mankind weighs around 3 grams per square metre on earth's (land) surface. Office paper is around 80 grams per square metre, so mankind exerts around 1/25 the force on the earth's surface than would paper if completely covered. That's not a lot, is it?

Your bridge analogy is a good one, however. There could be local effects, some of which would be quite funny, others rather tragic. Just not global effects.
-- Custardguts, Sep 14 2014


get all the cows to jump as well; there's another few billion pounds.
-- FlyingToaster, Sep 17 2014


Gravitational waves/radiation are a postulate. LIGO might become a useful tool, but has yet to show any signs that it can prove the existence of gravity as radiation.
-- WcW, Sep 17 2014


This is quite similar to "International Boing" isn't it?
-- nineteenthly, Sep 17 2014


I missed that one, and now it doesn't seem to exist. I can only find a link to it on [st3f]'s "World Mexican Wave" idea.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 17 2014



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