How BIG of a HOLE?
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
United States
January 21, 2009 8:25am CST
Yes, it is true.
Some day it could come to pass. Extraterrestrial aliens could invade the earth and kill everyone except for YOU!
Imagine they then say to you, “We will let you live, if you can calculate for us ‘HOW BIG OF A HOLE?’ do we need to bury this stinking, rotting, mass of humanity?”
What to do?
Listen up. This could save your life someday.
There are about 6,000,000,000 humans on planet earth. (Who knows how many are elsewhere?).
Let’s say they average 5 foot 8 inches tall, 2 foot wide, and 1 foot thick. Yes, lots of people are much larger, but we have to average in all the children. This is a good representative figure. However, adjust it as you see fit. It will be your life depending on the answer.
Here are the figures.
6,000,000,000 times 5.667 times 2 times 1 equals about 68,000,000,000 (rounded off)
That means the aliens need a hole of about 68 billion cubic feet to bury all of humanity except for lucky YOU.
How big is that?
Here are the figures.
The cube root of 68 billion is about 4082 (rounded off). One mile is 5280 feet. 4082 divided by 5280 equals about 3 fourths of a mile (rounded off). So, a grave 3 fourths mile on a side is all that is needed to bury all of humanity minus one.
To put it in perspective, such a hole would be a tiny spot in a remote corner of the Grand Canyon.
You might tell the aliens that. It could save them the work of digging the hole and cause them to look even more favorably upon you.
I say that such an insignificant speck as humanity would have a very difficult time altering the temperature of the earth.
What do you say?
3 people like this
5 responses
@uath13 (8192)
• United States
21 Jan 09
Ok then look at this logic.
Try calculating how big the mass of a single mouse is compared to say a house. Said mouse chews through some of the wiring that starts a house fire & burns it to the ground. How much did he affect the temperature of the house?
4 people like this
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
21 Jan 09
The earth is a complex ecological system, even more complex than a house. Your point is well made and valid.
2 people like this
@James72 (26790)
• Australia
21 Jan 09
You certainly chose one of the most unique ways to get a point on global warming across that I think I've ever seen RYBD! 
That example makes us seem ridiculously insignificant when you think about it. Knowing my luck, aliens wouldn't come down to earth and ask me a question like that at all. I'd be the guy AFTER the first guy that answered it and the aliens would make me dig the damn hole!
I have shared my opinions before on global warming and they haven't changed really. The earth is far more self-sustaining than we give it credit for. Sure, what we are doing to it isn't helping any; but the long, long term likelihood is that we will end up killing ourselves through our negative environmental contributions and then the earth will just get on with healing itself. Just like I believe it may have done many times over already.....
That example makes us seem ridiculously insignificant when you think about it. Knowing my luck, aliens wouldn't come down to earth and ask me a question like that at all. I'd be the guy AFTER the first guy that answered it and the aliens would make me dig the damn hole!
I have shared my opinions before on global warming and they haven't changed really. The earth is far more self-sustaining than we give it credit for. Sure, what we are doing to it isn't helping any; but the long, long term likelihood is that we will end up killing ourselves through our negative environmental contributions and then the earth will just get on with healing itself. Just like I believe it may have done many times over already.....2 people like this
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
21 Jan 09
You make a very good point. The earth is billions of years old. Modern man has been around what? 50,000 years? This is but the blink of an eye in geologic terms. Intelligent civilizations very well could have risen and wiped themselves out many times.
2 people like this
@VKXY62 (1605)
• Australia
21 Jan 09
Greetings Earthling,
we are the Mystrons, we see some of you have received our telepathic communications, although the message seems to be a bit misinterpreted.
We only need you to save yourselves by burying your militaries, economists, politicians, security guards, hairdressers, and Jerry Springer, everyone else has been deemed useful and may live.
??
In other words, if your I.Q. is better than Paris Hilton, you can stay.
Hiya Red..
2 people like this
@Barb42 (4214)
• United States
21 Jan 09
Oh, red, my head is too full of yuck this morning after being out in the cold yesterday at the hospital to think of such things! 
I don't have time to think about the aliens coming to do away with us at the moment. You expect too much of us this early in the morning! 
I don't have time to think about the aliens coming to do away with us at the moment. You expect too much of us this early in the morning! @redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
21 Jan 09
Sorry about that. To sum up, for the early risers, Earth huge, humans microscopic! Though, that brings up the reasoning that virus are very small but can raise the temperature of the human they inhabit. If we are an infection of the earth, then maybe we could raise its temperature!
@Barb42 (4214)
• United States
21 Jan 09
Hopefully, we aren't an infection on the earth! I'm not ready for humans to become extinct! Aliens beware: I'm ready to fight!
Global warming people are such ignoramuses! Humans do not have the ability to change the warming or the cooling of the earth. I think GOD rules the world's climate,not man, although man thinks he is the controller of every thing. He gave us dominion "over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." And I see no place where he gave us dominion over the climate! We have to take what he gave us in that respect.
Global warming people are such ignoramuses! Humans do not have the ability to change the warming or the cooling of the earth. I think GOD rules the world's climate,not man, although man thinks he is the controller of every thing. He gave us dominion "over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." And I see no place where he gave us dominion over the climate! We have to take what he gave us in that respect.1 person likes this
@greenglitterturtle (2750)
• United States
27 Jan 09
hi redyellowblackdog...actually i'd tell them we wouldn't have to bother digging a hole. cause i heard on the history channel (which by then would be history) that there are 7-14,000 asteroids unaccounted for. and any one of them could hit the earth at any time. and a small one would be the size of 2 football fields. and there are 8 super volcanoes waiting to go off. so we should just let nature take it's course.
1 person likes this
@redyellowblackdog (10629)
• United States
7 Feb 09
If I think about what you have said, I won't be able to sleep tonight.
@greenglitterturtle (2750)
• United States
7 Feb 09
hehe well they say it can happen at any time.
1 person likes this
