Planet Earth is currently home to around 8.2 billion living human bodies. Virtually every one of which, when you think about it, is basically a deconstructed meatball in some variation of Birkenstocks and a North Face jacket.
You didn’t think about it? Well, four years ago, a math enthusiast on Reddit did, contributing to the majestic library of online content that helps you visualize the sweaty lump of mass traditionally referred to as the human race.
“If you blended all 7.88 billion people on Earth into a fine goo (density of a human = 985 kg/m3, average human body mass = 62 kg), you would end up with a sphere of human goo just under 1 km wide,” Reddit contributor kiki2703 wrote in a post I’ve since bookmarked for sharing at the family barbeques I’m no longer allowed to attend.
Reasoning the density of a minced human to be 985 kilograms per cubic meter (62 pounds per cubic foot) is a fair estimate, given past efforts have judged our jiggling sack of grade-A giblets to average out in the ballpark of 1 gram per cubic centimeter, or roughly the same as water. And in mid-2021, the global population was just around 7.9 billion, give or take.
The fact this roughly 500-million-metric-ton meatball would not only sit neatly inside the city of New York but could fit within the confines of Central Park with room for a queue of tourists might come as a shock to anybody who has been forced to jostle for elbow room in Times Square at midnight on New Years Eve.
How might this compare with other items on the menu, though?
If we want a sausage made from every insect, it would weigh around a billion tons. By some estimates insects are only a little less dense than water, on average, therefore easily doubling the size of our meatball.
Want a bootleg Filet-O-Fish to go with that? Current estimates of mesopelagic fishes come out around the same, at about 1 billion tons.
Of course if you’re not picky and are happy to pack the planet’s mass of bacteria into a giant slurpee container, you could come away with a 70 billion ton beverage that has a density just over that of water, which would help turn Manhattan into an all-you-can-eat buffet.
The fact our biosphere could all stack inside such a compact region is the real food for thought, however. Though perhaps not something that’s easily digested at your next family brunch.
Sorry Mom.
