[LINK] Re: Exponential growth [was Microsoft is dead ... were it so!]

[Antony Barry]

On 10/04/2007, at 1:41 PM, Rick Welykochy wrote:

> At the risk of veering OT again,if the human pop. of the earth is
> doubling now, say, every twenty years, how much warning will mankind
> have before we have exhausted the resource supply necessary to
> sustain the human population.
>
> The answer to both of these questions will surprise a lot of (non-
> scientific) people.

Back 40 years ago I did a reductio ad absurdum version of this  
assuming that the entire planetary mass could be converted to humans  
and got, I think, 6,500 years.

...Checks calculation ... assuming the average density of the planet  
is 5gm/cc and the radius is 4000 miles, the average human weighs 60kg  
and the doubling time is 30 years you get ~2800 years from now. Sorry  
about the mixed units but those are the ones in my head.

Tony


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