Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: Aaron Ptolomey on 16/05/2010 01:30:03

Title: Could every person in the world fit in the UK?
Post by: Aaron Ptolomey on 16/05/2010 01:30:03

Aaron Ptolomey asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Hello,

Just recently me and a friend have been having an argument over a question that hopefully the Naked Scientist could answer.

The question is 'could every person in the world stand back to back in the UK?  I have searched high and low for the answer, I want to bring this argument between good friends to an end !!

Thanks for your help .

Aaron Ptolomey

What do you think?

Title: Could every person in the world fit in the UK?
Post by: Bored chemist on 16/05/2010 10:05:43

Google tells me that the area of the UK is about 245000 square Km. That's 245,000,000,000 square metres.
The population of the earth is about 6,000,000,000 so there's plenty of room for everyone, about 40 square metres each.
It used to be said that you could get the whole world's population on the Isle of White.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Wight
That would be a bit of a tight squeeze; perhaps the story was true when the population was a bit smaller.