[The Huge Entity] New comment on Exponentially Self-Realising Reflexive-Consciousne....
williamcotton has left a new comment on your post "Exponentially Self-Realising Reflexive-Consciousne...":
how many people are asleep at any given moment?
people generally go to sleep when it is dark and wake up when it is light.
at any given moment the sun is setting on the surface of the earth.
now, you could actually set up a large differential equation, using population densities at various points on the globe if you wanted to get really accurate...
...but assume that the population of the earth is spread out evenly over the surface.
also assume that it is the spring or fall equinox, so that the light from the sun is equally distributed between the northern and souther hemisphere. that would mean that the days are 12 hours long planet wide. let's say everyone generally goes to sleep a few hours after sunset, say at around 10pm, and wake up at 6am. at any given moment, it is "10pm" at some place on the planet and "6am" at some other place, so an equal amount of people are falling asleep and waking up at the same time. it is only between the hours of 10pm and 6am over 1/3rd of the surface of the earth at any given moment. so, the average number of people asleep at any given moment is the population of the planet multiplied by the ratio of the average of number of hours people get to the number of hours in a day. you could get a much better idea of how many people were asleep on Jan. 26th at 0700GMT by taking into consideration such things as population densities and sunset times on the globe, however this simple algebraic calculation would give you a yearly average, as the densities and changes in season are smoothed out and rendered irrelevant as the earth spun and traveled in orbit over the course of a year.
phew!
Posted by williamcotton to The Huge Entity at April 12, 2010 8:51 AM
how many people are asleep at any given moment?
people generally go to sleep when it is dark and wake up when it is light.
at any given moment the sun is setting on the surface of the earth.
now, you could actually set up a large differential equation, using population densities at various points on the globe if you wanted to get really accurate...
...but assume that the population of the earth is spread out evenly over the surface.
also assume that it is the spring or fall equinox, so that the light from the sun is equally distributed between the northern and souther hemisphere. that would mean that the days are 12 hours long planet wide. let's say everyone generally goes to sleep a few hours after sunset, say at around 10pm, and wake up at 6am. at any given moment, it is "10pm" at some place on the planet and "6am" at some other place, so an equal amount of people are falling asleep and waking up at the same time. it is only between the hours of 10pm and 6am over 1/3rd of the surface of the earth at any given moment. so, the average number of people asleep at any given moment is the population of the planet multiplied by the ratio of the average of number of hours people get to the number of hours in a day. you could get a much better idea of how many people were asleep on Jan. 26th at 0700GMT by taking into consideration such things as population densities and sunset times on the globe, however this simple algebraic calculation would give you a yearly average, as the densities and changes in season are smoothed out and rendered irrelevant as the earth spun and traveled in orbit over the course of a year.
phew!
Posted by williamcotton to The Huge Entity at April 12, 2010 8:51 AM
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