Bouncing UK Children Cause Earthquake

Xibalba writes: "This is kinda cool. One million children in the UK jumped up and down simultaneously in an attempt to see what would seismically happen." This cries out to become an annual (and international) all-ages event. Bounce! Bounce! Gain weight! Bounce! Repeat.

The same effect could be had easier

[Anonymous Coward]

Just let Steve Ballmer jump around a little again.

They actually succeeded...

[epsalon]

Isn't it a bit irresposible of those scientists? What if they have made a real big earthquake with damage and such? Shouldn't they be a bit more resposible?

Elementary school

[Anonymous Coward]

See, the children were in elementary school, which is a higher education than the journalist had.

Early estimates suggested 75,000 tons of energy had been released during the minute of jumping.

WTF?

[sharkey]

But drop that in one spot and it would have caused quite a big hole in the ground

They aren't actually suggesting that all of Britain's children be dropped in one spot to see how big a hole they'll make, are they?

Ah, they jumped voluntarily?

[JCCyC]

Whew, thank God. When I read "Bouncing UK children" I thought they had been thrown out of the window or something!

Should have just asked Cecil..

[dohnut]

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_155.html [straightdope.com]

Little kids could have thought of this!

[kidblast]

When I was a child, I often thought of what would occur if a huge number of people jumped simultaneously, but I never really thought it would happen. Apparently, though, if you have a PhD in Physics and a little notebook of all your kiddy schemes, then you can have them carried out as "research". Can't wait to see what will be in the news next. Im guessing something where we see what will happen if everyone in the world flushes their toilets simultaneously. Will this cause the polar caps melt, or the oceans to drain? Find out on yahoo! (or slashdot)

Re:Elementary school

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, being one of the most "massive" sets of the population, geeks really could have alot of power (much more than we have!). Just imagine if we could concentate just 100,000 of us around particular targets (DMCA, MPAA offices, certain Redmond, VA corporations, legislators houses, etc.)! I can imagine it now: 100,000 CowboyNeal clones, wannabees, jumping up and down, elbow to elbow; sweating like pigs, and wheasing like asmetics, all whilst bringing down international organizations to their knees! MUHAHAHAHAHA!

China's Doomdsay Weapon

[gad_zuki!]

Everyone now, ready, set, go!

Infamous earthquake game at Death Valley

[ScottBob]

In 1988, football fans literally caused an earthquake when Louisiana State University's quarterback threw a touchdown pass on a fourth-and-nine with 1 minute, 41 seconds remaining in the game, to beat Auburn 7-6. 79,431 cheering fans inside Tiger Stadium ("Death Valley") jumping to their feet all at once caused an earthquake that registered around 3 or so on the seismograph inside the nearby geological sciences building.

But in the years since, the seismograph has fallen to the budget axe, and Tiger Stadium has been expanded to hold over 90,000. So if a "squeaker" of a game like that ever was to happen again, the resulting earthquake may topple the Louisiana state capitol building and ring bells in Alabama, but no one on campus will know how strong it was...

Re:Little kids could have thought of this!

[loraksus]

I was in a dorm a few years back and the occupants did almost the same thing. All of us flushed our toilets (approx 400 toilets) simultaniously (timed to when the local news started). Dunno what the hell happened, but we flooded the basement somehow. (5 floors, we had a math guru time the floors, sort of a time on target thing, and the first floor flushed 4 seconds after the music started, 2nd 3 sec, 3rd 2 sec, 4th 1 sec, 5th as they heard it)
It was a while back...

Some other fun synchronous experiments...

[ch-chuck]

For our next big event, on signal, lets all simultaneously:

1) flush toilets
2) pick up a telephone handset
3) switch on a large electrical appliance
4) call for Chinese take out delivery
5) withdraw funds from the bank
6) visit the same web site

I remember one time when. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

Some of the kids in my old highschool organized the following:

All toilets were flushed on the final note of the national anthum.

Didn't actually make anything explode as hoped, but it did back up the plumbing for about half a day.

-Fantastic Lad

Re:Some other fun synchronous experiments...

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure laugh about that, but keep in mind this is slashdot. remeber the time some poor guy wired his central heating up to the net alowing visitors of his site to change the temperature in his home by 0.001 degrees / visitor. all fun and games watching the temperature go up and down on a webcam aimed at a old fashioned thermometer until someone posted the sugestion "lets all turn the heat up guys" *and* got modded up...

Re: 75,000 tons of energy ???

[dillon_rinker]

Or for the pendantic...
What would that be? The people who dangle?
&lt/pedantic&gt