Could the whole population of the world fit into Texas?

[Duer 157099]

I heard this claim, that providing each person on the planet--some 6 billion of us--1,700 square feet, that every living person could fit into the state of Texas.

Any mathematically inclined person out there willing to verify this?

If so, it's sort of a little bit mind-boggling.

Not that most of us would ever *want* to fit into Texas, although I bet it would piss off GWB.

[Ezlivin]

1. Apparently that is the plan

You should see the unending construction and road-building in the DFW area.

Or maybe it just feels like the whole damned world is moving here.

[rainbow4321]

17. Just wait til Super Bowl week

collides with our local infrastructure.

I will be locking myself up in my apartment that weekend.


I'd say "thank goodness I do DART to and from work" but even that will be a nightmare. I can hardly handle the newbie train travellers crowds during State Fair. I kinda like the train full of regular daily commuters being too sleepy in the morning to cause a ruckus and "really too tired after a day's work" quietness on the way home.

[Ezlivin]

26. I feel your pain

When the Texas Motor Speedway opened the roads around here were gridlocked for hours.

Living in the Metroplex you have to develop a "road sensibility", as in "when is it sensible to get on the road." I avoided heading to Dallas during Cowboy games because the roads around Irving Stadium were useless. I know when TMS is "hot", when the Rangers/Cowboys/Stars are playing, when rush hour starts and ends and which roads are under construction. A little knowledge can really help you get to where you're going without flying into road rage.

But I work at home and thus can avoid the whole damned commute. I wish DART was greatly extended. But the Republicans around here only want to build endless miles of road.

[damntexdem]

32. At least I only have to drive about four miles to work.

But my wife commutes to Dallas. And even when the commuter train starts (supposedly this year), if they don't develop a reasonable schedule, it will be useless to us (and to the University of North Texas, a campus of 36,000 students that COULD supply the major ridership on a train with a reasonable schedule).

[w8liftinglady]

29. you must live near my mom

I told her to forget about seeing us that week...we'd have to walk there-traffic will be shitty &/or blocked

[xor]

44. heh... yeah but at least it's not as bad here as it is in Houston in regards

to the never ending construction.

[roguevalley]

49. that thing sounds like big talking, fitting six billion people into

texas. if that is so, then we up here can fit 18 billion people in Alaska because we are three times bigger. Oops. Wasn't supposed to say that. :P

[Poll_Blind]

2. Yeah but with all those people a-rubbin' up against one another Texas wouldn't hold them for long.

People could get all humpy like that.

:shrug:

PB

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Texas is 268,601 square miles. Asssuming 6 billion people, it's 1248 sq. ft. per person.

268,601 square miles = 7.45E12 square feet

divide by 6 billion people

leaves 1248 sq. ft. per person

[Duer 157099]

15. Wow, so it's (essentially) true. Thanks for the math.

I knew some of you would come through on this.

So now I can boggle my mind by contemplating this new fact.

I say let's do it! Let the rest of the planet recuperate from all the damage we've caused.

:thumbsup:

[Rabrrrrrr]

28. If by 'essentially' you mean '28% error', then yes! lol.

:P

We should do it, let everyone shit there a few times, and then leave. The Texans will be so busy cleaning up that we can go write textbooks that are scientifically and historically accurate.

[Duer 157099]

33. Kind of a flash-mob thing?

Sounds like a plan!

[Toucano]

55. Would they really be busy cleaning up?

Or would they not notice the difference?

OH!

[Rabrrrrrr]

56. Bazing!

:rofl:

[texastoast]

4. Move on down

Everyone else has.

My Texas is gone.

[hamsterjill]

8. Mine, too.

And I miss it terribly!

[texastoast]

11. I think I have that hat

In your avatar. Miller or Stetson?

[hamsterjill]

20. Stetson.

My daddy (who I lost last September) wore one of those every day of his life!

He was one of the last of the real cowboys, and a gentleman. Part of the Texas that I miss.

[texastoast]

39. ...

I'm sorry about your dad. It's awful to lose your daddy. :hug: I lost mine in 97. I miss him every day.

One side of my famiy is all cowboys and cowgirls (well, really Indian cowboys and cowgirls, all mixed up in Oklahoma). Starched white shirts and blue jeans, white hats and boots. Fearless, all of them. Only now, they ride four-wheelers instead of horses a lot of the time to manage the cows. When I visit, I give them a hard time for not saddling up like they used to.

[Speck Tater]

5. Here's the math

BAH!!!

Just read post #3 for the correct answer. :)

I had the whole population in one square mile!

[EOTE]

7. I'd check that math. NT

[Rabrrrrrr]

12. Indeed! Check a few times! lol

[EOTE]

16. According to the census bureau, we're approaching 7 billion world population.

And you'll probably want to check your ft^2/mile^2 calculation again.

[EOTE]

6. Not quite.

Here's my math:
Texas = 268,601 square miles
1 square mile = 5280ftx5280ft = 27498240 square feet

268,601 x 27498240 = 7,386,054,762,240 square feet

So Texas seems to have about 7.3 trillion square feet

I believe the population of the earth is around 6.5 billion, so that would give each person around 1,100 square feet to live on. I suppose it's possible.

[Justitia]

9. Please come - we need all the Democrats we can get!

:bounce:

[w8liftinglady]

30. LOL....you aren't kidding...especially where I live!

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. And if we put everyone in DC - we all get about 46 square inches. In Alaska, 3050 sq. ft.

[LucySky]

13. It could be mathematically true, but it would not work as a practical matter.

Space is required for transportation and movement.

Roads, highways and recreational areas would take up a good portion of the available square footage.

Look at it this way. You could fit the world's population in Rhode Island, if you stacked people in nothing but high rise apartments, and they never left those apartments.

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. (I'm pretty sure the OP wasn't offering this as a viable or doable idea)

[Duer 157099]

18. Correct. Although....

it is interesting to contemplate.

[earthside]

22. No.

But you hear this 'argument' from the anti-science types when overpopulation is brought up.

And they will use this argument to justify despoiling the land because, well, there is plenty to despoil and god wants us to exploit the environment.

Of course, you just the human waste generated from that many people living in such a confined area would make it simply impossible.

[LucySky]

27. I know. I carried the scenario a step further to spur discussion.

The OP got me to thinking about how many average square feet a person needs to live comfortably. This includes living space and all square footage required for infrastructure.

[Dreamer Tatum]

24. Which means the Earth's population could fit in the continental US

at a rate of 16,500 square feet per person.

[Hannah Bell]

52. 7 billion people could fit in the entire US with about the same population density as taiwan.

but less population density than bermuda.

But 7 billion people could fit in africa with about the same population density as germany.

[jwirr]

38. And no one is thinking about water and waste with that many people

in that small a space.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. An average person fits on a .7 x .6 meter rectangle = .42 square meters.

.42 x 7,000,000,000 = 2,940 square kilometers. That's less than the area of Rhode Island.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

21. Only if they were very, very drunk. N.T.

[Jamastiene]

23. If this becomes some kind of Guiness Book of World Records thing,

I sure hope they do it during winter. It would be awful even then, but possibly deadly to try it in the summer.

I, for one, don't think it is true...unless they pile us all up to the sky.

[charlie]

25. Not for long

Imagine Cubans, Nigerians, Vietnamese... cheek to jowl with our armed yahoo contingent.

[somone]

31. If they like cannibalism

[rgbecker]

34. Here's another way to do it.

Dump everybody into a big hole 1 mile square and 1/4 mile deep...that gives each body 6 cubic feet and you could cover it all up with 10 feet of top soil and plant daisies. Dig it about 1/2 mile deep and you could include everyone who has ever lived on planet earth. Dust in the wind.

[kimmerspixelated]

35. Interesting post, but I sense a sarcasm towards Texas.

Once again, there's assholes in every state! Texas has numerous fine qualities. Please no stereotypes.

[Duer 157099]

37. Nope, it was an actual statement that I heard

and it wasn't disparaging Texas, it was just putting things into a different perspective.

Granted, it's practically a meaningless exercise, although as someone noted above, some idiots use it as an argument that the planet is not overpopulated.

[spin]

36. Remember the 1968 book "Stand on Zanzibar" by John Brunner

The primary engine of the novel's story is overpopulation and its projected consequences, and the title refers to an early twentieth century claim that the world's population could fit onto the Isle of Wight (area 381 km²) if they were all standing upright. Brunner remarked that the growing world population now required a larger island – the 3.5 billion people living in 1968 could stand together on the Isle of Man (area 572 km²), while the 7 billion people who he projected would be alive in 2010 would need to stand on Zanzibar (area 1554 km²).<2> Throughout the book, the image of the entire human race standing shoulder-to-shoulder on a small island is a metaphor for a crowded world where each person feels hemmed in by a prison made not of metal bars, but of other human beings. By the end of the book, some of that crowd is (metaphorically) knee deep in the Indian Ocean surrounding the island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_on_Zanzibar

[ProudDad]

41. I sure do!

Two of his novels were epiphanies to me... :hi:

"Stand on Zanzibar" and "The Sheep Look Up"

I'm still waiting for the sheep to look up... :shrug:

[ProudDad]

42. This is interesting...

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~tenshi/influ.html

[spin]

43. Lots of good SF on that list...

thanks for the link.

[eppur_se_muova]

50. GMTA! Saved me from posting that. ;^) nt

[ProudDad]

40. Maybe ...

But the population of Texas can't fit in the world... :hide:

[xor]

45. That sounds uncomfortable

[MrScorpio]

46. If that were the case, I'm sure that these will really be popular:

[Recursion]

47. At the density of Queens, the entire world could fit in New York City (nt)

[rainbow4321]

48. (groan) KO is doing a "Texas Tea" segment

about the damn TX Dems who switched to the repukes, explaining just how fucked we are all going to be with the repuke supermajority.

I'm thinking travel nursing is gonna be in my future. Keep TX apartment so I can still have a home base address here (won't have to pay state taxes) but go work in a much better (blue..purple..) place on someone else's dime since agencies pay for housing where ever you go to work.

[Hannah Bell]

51. 6 billion people could fit into TX. Population density would be 22,304 people/m2,

about the same as Singapore's (18,189).

Lower than the density of Macau & Monaco.

So under those circumstances, TX would be the third most densely populated area on earth, but the largest one in area.

[spin]

54. Infrastructure could be a problem ...

Water and sewage could prove difficult.

[HopeHoops]

53. I'll be happy to ease the crowding by not going. I have no desire to ever return to that state.