Aug 12, 2009 [b]: All of the water... all of the air

Imagine every drop of water on Earth gathered into one place. Now all of the air. Is this what you imagined?

Global water and air volume. Conceptual computer artwork of the total volume of water on Earth (left) and of air in the Earth's atmosphere (right) shown as spheres (blue and pink). The spheres show how finite water and air supplies are. The water sphere measures 1390 kilometres across and has a volume of 1.4 billion cubic kilometres. This includes all the water in the oceans, seas, ice caps, lakes and rivers as well as ground water, and that in the atmosphere. The air sphere measures 1999 kilometres across and weighs 5140 trillion tonnes. As the atmosphere extends from Earth it becomes less dense. Half of the air lies within the first 5 kilometres of the atmosphere.
Credit:
ADAM NIEMAN / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

air is pink?

That water one doesn't seem right. All of the water in the world would fill up a sphere whose diameter is roughly the width of France? That's it? The oceans cover most of this planet; and oceans are more than 4 cm deep.

According to wikipedia, the Pacific ocean alone has 10,803,873,000,000 cubic kilometers of water. That's either 10 times more or 1 millions times more than what the picture shows for all of Earth's water (depending on whether you define a billion as a thousand-million or a million-million).

Either way, somebody's math was way off here. I suspect they looked at the surface area and confused it for the volume.

I agree with newtimer. That doesn't seem right at all. And come to think of it neither does the pink air.

Yeah, I agree, the graph might be skewed. Its probably not counting salt content in the ocean though. That would take up quite a bit of the whole precentage. But I agree with you guys, this picture doesnt look right

barefoot serpent;587474 wrote:

air is pink?

In LA, yes.

If you look closely, you'll notice they forgot to take the water from the north polar region. It's still locked up in ice.

newtimer;587485 wrote:

That water one doesn't seem right. All of the water in the world would fill up a sphere whose diameter is roughly the width of France? That's it? The oceans cover most of this planet; and oceans are more than 4 cm deep.

According to wikipedia, the Pacific ocean alone has 10,803,873,000,000 cubic kilometers of water. That's either 10 times more or 1 millions times more than what the picture shows for all of Earth's water (depending on whether you define a billion as a thousand-million or a million-million).

Either way, somebody's math was way off here. I suspect they looked at the surface area and confused it for the volume.

Methinks Wiki must have it wrong. (I know, blasphemy and sacrelige!)

To get 10,803,873,000,000 cubic km, you need:
1,000,000 km wide
by
1,000,000 km long
by
10.803973 km deep.

While 10 km does approximate the deepest parts of the ocean (still not allowing for the "shallow" areas), there aint no way it is 10 million km across.

The sphere on the picture looks about right to me; remember the oceans are (comparitively) just a very shallow layer smeared around the surface.

I haven't found the wiki source article, but I suspect someone incorrectly converted cubic metres to cubic kilometres.
Linear kilometre = 1,000 linear metres.
Square kilometre = 1,000,000 square metres.
Cubic kilometre = 1,000,000,000 cubic metres.
I guess they had cubic metres and just divided by 1,000.

Elspode;587521 wrote:

In LA, yes.

I thought that was San francisco. [gay smiley]

barefoot serpent;587474 wrote:

air is pink?

Sure! This spring we had pink air. And it rained mud.

No, REALLY! So much dirt was kicked up during a day long windstorm that the air turned pinkish red. (I was 100 miles away and saw that ominous sky) Then it rained. It rained mud. And, since all our dirt is red...

Tick;587473 wrote:

Is this what you imagined?

"Do you hear what I'm thinking? Is it how you imagined?"
Sorry, a line from one of my very favourite Neil Finn songs.

Link. Please.

Planet Claire?

She came from Planet Claire
I knew she came from there
She drove a Plymouth Satellite
Faster than the speed of light

Planet Claire has pink air
All the trees are red
No one ever dies there
No one has a head

one thing to realize about ocean depths is that it won't matter where a fairly big (~200m or larger) asteroid hits -- the water will be pushed aside as if it wasn't even there.

I sort of remember another statistic that kind of surprised me a few years ago. If al the people on the planet were to stand in one place, each given a 2 foot square to stand in, we'd all fit on just a few acres of land. That's 6 billion+ people!

And one port-a-potty. :thepain:

barefoot serpent;587474 wrote:

air is pink?

Elspode;587521 wrote:

In LA, yes.

I thought the air in L.A. was brown...:headshake

Sheldonrs;587632 wrote:

I sort of remember another statistic that kind of surprised me a few years ago. If al the people on the planet were to stand in one place, each given a 2 foot square to stand in, we'd all fit on just a few acres of land. That's 6 billion+ people!

Which is why I'm unclear why people scream overpopulation.

Under population in most first world countries is creating HUGE problems for us.

Assuming two square feet, rather than a two foot square (4 square feet), that would be 12 billion square feet, or over 275000 acres. So, more than a few.

That would be about 430 square miles. or, a square a bit under 21 miles across, so maybe still a bit smaller than one might expect. About four times the original size of DC.

Sheldonrs;587632 wrote:

I sort of remember another statistic that kind of surprised me a few years ago. If al the people on the planet were to stand in one place, each given a 2 foot square to stand in, we'd all fit on just a few acres of land. That's 6 billion+ people!

Suppose that depends on what one means by "just a few acres of land"

An acre is 43,560 square feet. If everyone is given a 2 foot square (meaning a square 2 foot x 2 foot or 4 square feet?) then 10,890 people could stand in an acre. You'd need a bit more than 550,000 acres to hold 6 billion people. That's about 860 square miles or a square a bit less than 30 miles on a side.

Hey, maybe the picture of the water is supposed to represent all of the fresh water on Earth, not the oceans. That would be all rivers, lakes, ice caps, glaciers, frozen mountain tops, reservoirs, clouds, moisture in the air, and water sitting in our toilet tanks.

Maybe. It said every drop of water, and no matter how much salt you add, it's still the same H2O.

Damn statistics again. We always have to ask the "four out of five dentists" question.

The water graph shows all the water and does it accurately, I am confident. The oceans seem deep to humans but they are a very thin layer compared to the earth. Yes, it is surprisingly little. That is the point.

Its similar to taking your rolled up freshly delivered newspaper and spreading it out one page at a time so it covers the entire yard. Or cutting up a playing card to make a stip of cardboard a couple of metres long. We're playing with dimensions here.


As for the population thing, consider the following.
An old style phone booth is somewhat less that one square metre in floor space.
Squeezed in a bit, we can fit 6 people per square metre - allowing for large well-built types as well as children and slim types.
There are 1 million square metres per square kilometre, so we can get 6 million people per square kilometre.

If we allow two vertical metres for each group of six people, we can get 500 layers of people per vertical kilometre.

Hence we can get 6 million x 500 = 3 billion people per cubic kilometre.

Given current global population of around 6.7 billion, the entire human population of the earth could be squeezed into slightly more than two cubic kilometres.

That is about one cubic mile, for you old fashioned types.

Remember, that is squished the hell in with no provision for air supply or movement or anything. Don't even think about the toilet situation!

I've also read that all the gold ever discovered on earth would make a cube 18 metres along each side.

Ok, I see what you're saying. It's not the Earth's surface, it's the entire mass for comparison. Like I said, statistics. You have to examine them further.

People get nervous sailing out of sight of land.
I aways tell them, "Ah come on! We're always within 5 miles of land!"

I always ask - can you swim 5 miles? - Answer - No. - Then don't worry about going 50 or a 100 miles offshore.

Sundae Girl;587562 wrote:

"Do you hear what I'm thinking? Is it how you imagined?"
Sorry, a line from one of my very favourite Neil Finn songs.

capnhowdy;587584 wrote:

Link. Please.

Fair enough. It's just Wiki though.

:)

It just looks like a very strange, colorful pair of boobies to me.

Queen of the Ryche;587886 wrote:

It just looks like a very strange, colorful pair of boobies to me.

That reminds me...When ARE the Golden Globes awarded? :D

xoxoxoBruce;587638 wrote:

And one port-a-potty. :thepain:

Who uses a porta potty, man?

Haggis!


"When's Hendrix playin, man? Ah been waitin 40 years, an I aint goin home til I hear Hendrix play..."