EVERYBODY JUMP
大家一起跳
Q. What would happen if everyone on Earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant?
Q．如果地球上的所有人都尽可能挤在同一个地方，一起跳起，然后全部在一刹那间同时落地，会发生什么？ 8211;托马斯.贝内
A. THIS IS ONE OF the most popular questions submitted through my website. It 8217;s been examined before, including by ScienceBlogs and The Straight Dope. They cover the kinematics pretty well. However, they don 8217;t tell the whole story.
A．这个问题是所有提交到我的网站中的问题中问得最多的问题之一。之前ScienceBlog．com和Straight Dope1都曾分析过这个问题，运动学的部分他们已经讲得很明白了，我这里就不再重复一遍了。不过他们并没有告诉你事情的全部。
Let 8217;s take a closer look.
我们不妨来仔细分析一下。
At the start of the scenario, the entire Earth 8217;s population has been magically transported together into one place.
首先，全球的人口都被魔法运输到了同一个地方。
This crowd takes up an area the size of Rhode Island. But there 8217;s no reason to use the vague phrase 8220;an area the size of Rhode Island. 8221; This is our scenario; we can be specific. They 8217;re actually in Rhode Island.
整个人群的面积和罗得岛的面积相当。不过我们为什么要用 8221;和罗得岛的面积相当 8221;这种含糊的说法呢？这是我们的场景，我们说了算。我们就让所有人都真的来到罗得岛上好了。
At the stroke of noon, everyone jumps.
随着正午的到来，大家一起跳起。
As discussed elsewhere, it doesn 8217;t really affect the planet. Earth outweighs us by a factor of over ten trillion. On average, we humans can vertically jump maybe half a meter on a good day. Even if the Earth were rigid and responded instantly, it would be pushed down by less than an atom 8217;s width.
和其他地方讨论得到的结果一样，这个举动对地球一点影响都没有。地球的质量是所有人类质量的10万亿倍以上。正常人良好发挥时平均可以垂直跳起0.5米左右的距离，即使地球是刚体2并能瞬时做出响应，它也只会被向下推不到一个原子宽度的距离。
Next, everyone falls back to the ground.
接下来所有人都落到了地上。
Technically, this delivers a lot of energy into the Earth, but it 8217;s spread out over a large enough area that it doesn 8217;t do much more than leave footprints in a lot of gardens. A slight pulse of pressure spreads through the North American continental crust and dissipates with little effect. The sound of all those feet hitting the ground creates a loud, drawn-out roar lasting many seconds.
严格来说，落地这个过程确实会传递给地球巨大的能量，但是受力的面积太大了，产生的影响最多也只是在好多花园里留下一堆脚印而已。一股轻微的压力波会穿过北美大陆并消散掉，几乎不会产生任何影响。所有人落地时产生的巨大声响可能会持续几秒钟。
Eventually, the air grows quiet.
最终，一切都安静下来。
Seconds pass. Everyone looks around. There are a lot of uncomfortable glances. Someone coughs.
几秒钟过去了。大家都开始四下环顾。尴尬的目光。一些人开始咳嗽。
A cell phone comes out of a pocket. Within seconds, the rest of the world 8217;s five billion phones follow. All of them-even those compatible with the region 8217;s towers-are displaying some version of 8220;NO SIGNAL. 8221; The cell networks have all collapsed under the unprecedented load. Outside Rhode Island, abandoned machinery begins grinding to a halt.
一个人掏出了手机。几秒钟后，余下的50亿人都拿出了手机。所有的人，即使手机兼容当地网络的那些人，都将看到手机屏幕上有一句相同的话：无信号。所有的手机网络都在史无前例的重压下崩溃了。罗得岛外，没人操纵的机器开始慢慢地停了下来。
The T. F. Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island, handles a few thousand passengers a day. Assuming they got things organized (including sending out scouting missions to retrieve fuel), they could run at 500 percent capacity for years without making a dent in the crowd.
罗得岛上位于沃里克的T．F．Green机场每天能够处理的旅客吞吐量只有几千人。即使我们能够把一切安排得井井有条（包括派出队伍寻找并运回燃料），机场以500％的运力持续运行数年，也不会有任何可见效果。
The addition of all the nearby airports doesn 8217;t change the equation much. Nor does the region 8217;s light rail system. Crowds climb on board container ships in the deep-water port of Providence, but stocking sufficient food and water for a long sea voyage proves a challenge.
就算周围所有机场一起来帮忙，事态也不会有任何缓解，加上当地的轻轨系统也是杯水车薪。绝望的人们爬上停泊在普罗维登斯深水港的集装箱船，但搜集长途海上航行所需的食物和淡水又是一个巨大挑战。
Rhode Island 8217;s half-million cars are commandeered. Moments later, I-95, I-195, and I-295 become the sites of the largest traffic jam in the history of the planet. Most of the cars are engulfed by the crowds, but a lucky few get out and begin wandering the abandoned road network.
岛上50万辆私家车帮助疏散，用不了多久，I-95、I-195和I-295公路上将出现史上最严重的交通拥堵。绝大多数汽车中都塞满了人，有一小群幸运的人逃出了罗得岛，开始沿着废弃的道路网去往其他地方。
Some make it past New York or Boston before running out of fuel. Since the electricity is probably not on at this point, rather than find a working gas pump, it 8217;s easier to just abandon the car and steal a new one. Who can stop you? All the cops are in Rhode Island.
在汽车耗尽燃油前，一些人把车开到了纽约或者波士顿。由于此时几乎是不可能有电力供应的，因而与其花功夫去找一个还能工作的油泵，还不如直接抛弃这辆车再去偷一辆车。没有人能阻止你，所有警察都还在罗得岛呢！
The edge of the crowd spreads outward into southern Massachusetts and Connecticut. Any two people who meet are unlikely to have a language in common, and almost nobody knows the area. The state becomes a chaotic patchwork of coalescing and collapsing social hierarchies. Violence is common. Everybody is hungry and thirsty. Grocery stores are emptied. Fresh water is hard to come by and there 8217;s no efficient system for distributing it.
岛上的外围人群开始向邻近的马萨诸塞州和康涅狄格州涌去。任何两个相遇的人几乎都不可能说同一种语言，也几乎没有人熟悉这片区域。整个州变成了由时分时合的社会阶层组成的、混乱无序的群体。暴力随处可见，每个人都又饥又渴，杂货店早已被洗劫一空，淡水资源难以获取，有效的分配机制也无法建立起来。
Within weeks, Rhode Island is a graveyard of billions.
不出几周，数十亿人将在罗得岛上死去。
The survivors spread out across the face of the world and struggle to build a new civilization atop the pristine ruins of the old. Our species staggers on, but our population has been greatly reduced. Earth 8217;s orbit is completely unaffected-it spins along exactly as it did before our species-wide jump. But at least now we know.
幸存者们散布在世界各地，努力尝试在旧文明的废墟之上重建新文明。人类不至于灭绝，但人口将会锐减。讽刺的是，地球的轨道没有受到丝毫影响，仍然像人类惊天一跳之前那样默默旋转着。但至少我们知道了后果。