What If All of Humanity Became a Meatball?

Ever wonder what it would be like if every single person on Earth was squished into one giant meatball? It sounds like a scene straight out of science fiction, but a mathematician took on this intriguing thought experiment and revealed some jaw-dropping findings about humanity's compact size!

The Shocking Calculations Behind Our Collective Mass

Starting with some basic data, the mathematician used an average human weight of about 62 kilograms along with a body density of roughly 985 kilograms per cubic meter. This means that around sixteen people could snugly fit into just one cubic meter. Breaking it down for our current world population of approximately 8.2 billion, we're looking at a solid 516 million cubic meters of human mass!

When all this humanity is crammed together into a single sphere, it surprisingly measures just under one kilometer in diameter! For some perspective, imagine three Eiffel Towers piled on top of each other—that’s about how tall this colossal mass would be. If you visualize it, this gigantic ball of people could easily settle into the spacious confines of Central Park, which spans around 3.41 square kilometers.

Population Growth: Watching the Meatball Expand

But what happens as our population continues to grow? The mathematician explored this scenario too, noting that the global population is currently increasing at a rate of approximately 1.05 percent annually. This means that with growth, the sphere's radius would expand by roughly 1.74 meters each year!

He explained, "The radius grows according to the cube root of the volume, which has a small yet consistent rate of increase." So while the meatball of humanity will grow over time, it won’t be nearly as dramatic as one might expect!

A Legacy of Visualizing Humanity's Size

The idea of conceptualizing humanity's mass isn’t brand new. Back in 2014, Michael Stevens, the brain behind the popular YouTube channel Vsauce, created a captivating image portraying all 7.2 billion people at the time squeezed into the Grand Canyon. This visualization demonstrated just how little of even a massive natural feature would be filled by our entire population.

These mind-bending visuals transform abstract population statistics into something tangible. They enable us to truly grasp the vastness of humanity—not by just relying on numbers but by appreciating our existence through a more physical and relatable lens.