Hmmm...I'm not that gullible...

[Rudi]

This is from How-To-Geek's latest newsletter...
I dunno if these facts are right. maybe Chris can work it out for us....

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[HansV]

The area of Lake Victoria is 68,800 square kilometers, or 68,800,000,000 square meters.
The population of the Earth is currently about 7,268,000,000 persons.
So there is 68,800,000,000 / 7,268,000,000 ~ 9.5 square meters per person, or about 102 square feet...

[BobH]

But, if that ~100 sq. ft. is visualized as a square, it is only about 10 feet per side. If the average person is 5'5" (a bit short for Northern Europeans but maybe tall for other areas), one could only swim about 5' before banging into his next door neighbor. Even swimming the diagonal (hypoteneuse), one would have less than 10 feet.

And, the amount of bodily fluids in that locale is something I prefer not to contemplate.

[HansV]

The level of the lake would rise, so the lake would become larger, so we would have more space...

[BobH]

I'll leave it to you to calculate the mass of humanity (pun intended) and what displacement it would have on the total volume of Lake Victoria.

[Leif]

But,f that ~100 sq. ft. is visualized as a square, it is only about 10 feet per side. If the average person is 5'5" (a bit short for Northern Europeans but maybe tall for other areas), one could only swim about 5' before banging into his next door neighbor. Even swimming the diagonal (hypoteneuse), one would have less than 10 feet.

Apart from the extra depth envisaged by Hans, you wouldn't need a 10 foot width to swim in - say 4 feet, and that would give you 25' less your body length - just under 20'.
Then, you have to assume Rudi to everyone and tells them which way to swim - so if everyone is swimming in the same direction, your theoretical swimming distance is quite large. If everyone swims in a circular motion, the distance becomes nearer to infinty.

And before you say "Ah! But what about slow swimmers?!" - Simple, you just add the odd freshwater croc...

[BobH]

I like the way you think, Leif!

[Rudi]

Gee whiz... I go out for 100 minutes and come back to this...humanity swimming in an infinite circle of highly displaced water with crocs behind them. All we need is a big plug at the bottom of the lake to end the fiasco. TX Hans for the math(s).

[Leif]

You started it!

[Rudi]

And apparently just ended it.

[StuartR]

But how much room would all Leif's crocodiles need?

[BobH]

None, of course!

They get their space from the slower swimmers space.

[ChrisGreaves]

... say 4 feet, and that would give you 25' less your body length - just under 20'.

Now just hold on there a minute, Leif.
It is axiomatic that every swimmer has a hundred square feet.
With just a regular pair of triangular flippers I can move pretty fast.
Imagine how fast I could go with a hundred of them, and square too (hence twice the area since a triangle is ..)

Now Newton's laws of Motion state that distance travelled is give by
s=ut+¹/₂ at²
which means that the distance required (to come to a safe stop) is proportional to the square of the time, which means proportional to the square of the velocity.
With the rough equivalent of two hundred regular flippers, your average swimmer would need acres and acres (I can't work out the exact figures right now because my toes are covered up ...) ...

[ChrisGreaves]

I dunno if these facts are right. maybe Chris can work it out for us....

Funny this.
Last night I was looking through an old school atlas that listed the largest islands in the world.
Three of the ten largest islands are in Canada, but what caught my eye was "Victoria".
I knew about Baffin and Ellesmere, but at first thought that the atlas had goofed and was thinking that the state of Victoria was listed as an island since they hadn't listed Australia as an island.
Then I found Victoria Island.

Now, in terms of area, would Victoria island fit within Lake Victoria?
(signed) "Confused" of Toronto

[HansV]

Victoria Island is more than three times as large as Lake Victoria.
You could fit Tasmania into Lake Victoria though.

[ChrisGreaves]

You could fit Tasmania into Lake Victoria though.

At Last!
A solution to a problem that has plagued Aussies for centuries ...

[Claude]

It is axiomatic that every swimmer has a hundred square feet.

Is this some kind of unexpected mutation ? I've only got two, and, they aren't square !

[Rudi]

It is axiomatic that every swimmer has a hundred square feet.

Is this some kind of unexpected mutation ? I've only got two, and, they aren't square !

[hlewton]

All the calculations in this thread hurt my brains but still I have to ask, if this were to happen wouldn't it tip the axis of the earth enough that we wouldn't have to worry about swimming?

[Rudi]

Continuing with lake topic....

Question for someone who has stood on the shores of lake Erie:

If one stood at Cleveland, I assume one could see the "land" horizon at Learnington, or is the distance too vast to see across?
Similarly, would one be able to see the "land" horizon from Sandusky to Buffalo...ignoring the land to the left and right?

I'm just trying to picture the visual surface area of the lake in question....
TX

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