Filtered for big things that don’t weigh so much

16.44, Friday 30 Apr 2021

1.

The entire internet, i.e. all the electrons in all the electricity: about 50 grams, the same as a plump strawberry.

A gossamer lacework, as light as a strawberry, covering the world.

2.

The entire atmosphere of the Moon: less than 10 metric tonnes.

c.f. Earth’s atmosphere which is about 5.15 million gigatons.

c.f. Earth’s living biomass: just 2% of the weight of the atmosphere, 1,100 gigatons. But humans make a lot of mass too; anthropogenic mass doubles every 20 years. It turns out that we’re at the crossover point and, as of 2020: Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass.

3.

The total volume of Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) in the whole world: about 160 milliliters, roughly 6 shot glasses.

4.

The human soul:

In 1901, Duncan MacDougall, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts, who wished to scientifically determine if a soul had weight, identified six patients in nursing homes whose deaths were imminent. … When the patients looked like they were close to death, their entire bed was placed on an industrial sized scale that was sensitive within two tenths of an ounce.

MacDougall measured the patients’ loss of mass at the very moment of death, when the soul departs the body. The result and therefore the weight of the soul: 21 grams.

The experiment was repeated with dogs, and found no weight change, confirming the theory that animals do not have souls. Sadly: MacDougall said he wished to use dogs that were sick or dying for his experiment, though was unable to find any. It is therefore presumed he poisoned healthy dogs.

The Moon’s atmosphere weighs 200,000 internets. One internet is 2.4 human souls.

Science!

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