World Jump Day

The folks at World Jump Day plan to shift the orbit of planet Earth in order to "stop global warming, extend daytime hours and create a more homogenous climate." They'll achieve this by having 600 million people jump up in the air at the same time on July 20, 2006. And they're looking for jumpers! This, of course, recalls the old idea that "If all Chinese jumped at once, cataclysm would result." This has been debunked by The Straight Dope, which points out that the force generated by one billion Chinese people jumping up in the air at the same time would only be equivalent to about 500 tons of TNT. In other words, not that much. However, I don't think the creators of World Jump Day intend for anyone to take their idea that seriously. The site is registered to a German artist, Torsten Lauschmann. According to his web bio Lauschmann: celebrates glitches, and out-takes, bits in between and images that might be easy to ignore. Lauschmann is currently on a Trans European busking tour under the guise of Slender Whiteman where he will launch his solar powered dub system. He lives and works in Glasgow. Lauschmann also appears to be a member of a German art group called Vene Hammerschlag, which has also hosted World Jump Day on its site. In other words, World Jump Day appears to be some kind of art project hoax.

Websites

Posted on Mon Feb 28, 2005


Comments

Ok, this will only work if enough people do it, so if in the end it doesn't work...how are we going to know if enough people did it? It will only work if we get enough people to do it, if something this big can work that would be amazing, i think it could very well screw up everything and maybe end the world, call my psycho but i think it's worth that chance,i don't know about any of you, but i'd rather die of an explosion or something rather than frying to death....
Posted by PicKles  on  Tue Jun 20, 2006  at  08:22 AM
I find this rather amusing. You guys are arguing that this is a retarded idea. And you "spend quite some time" gathering scientific facts to try and prove it wrong. If this really was a retarded idea, which was already kind of a given, then why spend so much effort shooting down the idea? You guys are like the Christians. Never accepting shit that's slightly different from what you "know" is right.
Posted by ska  on  Mon Jul 03, 2006  at  05:32 PM
i love ska music...
Posted by sara  on  Mon Jul 03, 2006  at  05:36 PM
What if we all walk opposite in to the direction of the earths orbit, would we stay younger?
Posted by anjie  on  Tue Jul 11, 2006  at  10:31 AM
Let us think it's going to work, why are there always people there to try to look at the worst side of everything?
Posted by Sara  on  Wed Jul 12, 2006  at  12:39 PM
haha, funny and strong arguments from both sides, but in reality, the magnitude of this jump will not change the earth's orbit...EVER...maybe just a little tickle...😊
Posted by Daivy  on  Thu Jul 13, 2006  at  05:54 AM
I don't think this project is about changing Earth's orbit. I think this an attempt to reunite people all over the world so we understand that we're all the same and together we can try to make a difference. I don't think it'll change an inch of our orbit, but I'll jump to show my belieth that the world can be a better place
Posted by Henry  on  Sun Jul 16, 2006  at  07:33 PM
Hah! We couldn't even get Hands Across America to work, how do you expect to get everyone on the planet to jump at the exact same time? It's ludicrous to even consider it.
Posted by Charybdis  on  Mon Jul 17, 2006  at  09:36 AM
"OK, here are some quick calcs:

Assume the average human can jump up by 30 centimeters (vertical shift of the center of mass). Also, assume the average human weighs 70kg. I'm going to ignore the 600 million figure from their website and substitute 6 billion (if everyone jumped), and assume that somehow, everyone jumped from the same side of the world. This means a total mass of jumping people of 4.20*10^11 kg. The earth has a mass of 5.98*10^24kg. So, the earth would move 7.02*10^-14 times as far as the people did. The people jumped 30 centimeters, so the earth would move 2.11*10^-14 m. The size of a proton is roughly 10^-15 m. So, the earth would move the equivalent distance of 20 protons. Not too encouraging...Also, once people were pulled back down by gravity, the earth would return to its previous position, resulting in a final displacement of zero."Cjl - BAUTF
Posted by Ed  on  Mon Jul 17, 2006  at  10:26 PM
i think national jump day will b fun does anyone no how to register?
Posted by claire  on  Tue Jul 18, 2006  at  05:00 PM
yeah but u have to be in like america or africa etc =(
Posted by mel  on  Tue Jul 18, 2006  at  05:09 PM
Charybdis as I said it's an ATTEMPT. I never said it'll work.
Posted by Henry  on  Wed Jul 19, 2006  at  06:34 PM
I dont think this whole jump day will change anything... but I think it'll make people more aware of the environment. Look at all the comments on this event already! If an ARTICLE about this event evokes this much response about our environment, imagine what 600 million people jumping at the same time to try to do something will bring about? The jump doesnt change the earth's orbit. It sheds light on our environment (which is dying at a rapid pace btw).
Posted by jon  on  Thu Jul 20, 2006  at  12:44 AM
Look at all the comments on this event already!

Yup, 63 comments since March 1st last year. That's honestly not a huge response. It's just getting attention again because that time of year is rolling around and people are hearing of it and googling it.

...imagine what 600 million people jumping at the same time to try to do something will bring about?

Absolutely nothing, but they'll think they've done their bit, and happily go back to their usual lives. Sad, really.
Posted by Boo  on  Thu Jul 20, 2006  at  03:40 AM
Well I've been eating loads since I found out about this thing so it had better bleedin work!
Posted by Johnny English  on  Thu Jul 20, 2006  at  05:07 AM
you are very right we do need to shed light on the enviorment and the website says over 6hundred million 250 thousand are gonna jump that's hell of a lot of people that might make some form of news and if others start to see that we are trying to help they might too and we got some pretty smart people out there. And i jumped it was fun.
Posted by clark  on  Thu Jul 20, 2006  at  05:11 AM
I think it's a very bad idea. Men shouldn't try to fix the harm they already made, just try to stop harming the planet from now on. What's done, it's done, learn from the mistakes.
Altering the earth's position could be catastrofic, it could change the natural balance of the waters, the ice...
Very bad idea. If something goes wrong, I will track them down!
Posted by Marina  on  Thu Jul 20, 2006  at  07:35 AM
IT WAS NOT A HOAX JUST ONLY MASSIVE PROJECT
Posted by Linkman  on  Tue Aug 08, 2006  at  08:10 AM
This is a great scam I mean there are lots of idiots on the internet this is a great way to sell products like world jump day t shirts and a way to get a website popular so ya this guy is smart making this site so it draws in idiots wow...
Posted by haha  on  Tue Aug 29, 2006  at  04:34 PM
:) haha
hump day is freaking awesome
we should all hump each other
Posted by Casey  on  Thu Oct 11, 2007  at  12:17 PM
join our group on facebook for a group project for school please. it is in relevance to world jump day.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=11180971585
Posted by zodination  on  Wed Apr 02, 2008  at  01:34 AM
This is one of the weirdest tings I have heard of. Why do they even have something like this? People need to exercise, not just jump for one day.
Posted by Inflatable Jumpers  on  Fri Aug 08, 2008  at  03:23 AM
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