Burt Rutan posted a presentation in April 2010 in which he quantified the size of the human biomass on Gaia. This prompted me to try an illustrate the human biomass a bit more clearly.
Assume the mass of an average human is 77 kilogrammes, the same asumption made by Burt, and assume that the average density of a human body is 1 tonnes/cubic metre. A body with a mass of 77 kilogrammes will fill a space of 77 litres, a cube with sides of 42.5 cm, as shown in the sketch hereunder: -
One cubic metre, which contains 1000 litres, can contain the biomass of 13 human bodies. This is illustrated in the sketch hereunder: -
Assume there are 7 billion persons on Gaia
Then 7 000 000 000 / 13 =
538 461 538 cubic metres
What does this volume represent?
•a cube of 813.6 x 813.6 x 813.6 metres
•A sphere with a radius of 504.69 metres!
•But what does this mean?
Table Mountain in Cape Town is slightly higher than 1000 metres, place the human ball with a diameter of 1009 metres in the harbour and this is what it will look like: -
Fin
