[Phys-L] Re: World Jump Day

[John Clement <clement@HAL-PC.ORG>]

Read it and weep.  This just shows the sad state of physics education of the
general public.  I think I have heard of this scheme before.  They do offer
merchandise so, it could be a money making idea, but I think that sadly it
is for real.

At the new year's party last night a mathematician said we should count down
10,9...,1,0,-1 to account for the extra leap second.  I had to try to
explain this to some other revelers.  I mentioned that the earth is slowing
down.  This is a bit simplistic, but for a party explanation it might be OK.
So someone asked if it were because of friction with the atmosphere.  An
elementary physics student should be able to spot the problem with this
thought (most won't).  Actually there is also the discrepancy between the
time standard and the actually day.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> I received this website from my physics colleague. The idea is for people
> on Earth to simultaneously jump to alter Earth's orbit to reduce global
> warming. Yea, I thought it was a joke, too, until I went to the website:
>
> [ http://www.venehammerschlag.com/worldjumpday/
> ]http://www.venehammerschlag.com/worldjumpday/
>
> This will take place on July 20, 2006. Apparently, nearly 400,000,000
> people have already registered, and 600,000,000 are required for this to
> work! Is this for real??? I wonder if this group has any affiliation with
> the Flat Earth Society...
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