1 of 3 Things Could Be Wonderful (I Calculate) By Ian Beardsley 
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I was thinking about the human situation last night and I had a revelation that we can solve all our problems. Consider that the population of the earth is seven billion (a little more): 7,000,000,000 The radius of the earth is: 6,378 kilometers (6,378 km) The surface area of the earth is then: 4(pi)(6,378 km)^2 = 4(3.141)40,678,884 = 511,089,499 square kilometers The ocean covers about two-thirds of the the earth’s surface. So, the land area is: (1/3)(511,089,499)=170,363,166 square kilometers. (7,000,000,000 people)/(170,363,166 km^2) = 41 people There are, then, about 41 people per square kilometer. (I estimate a square kilometer is about four small town blocks). The earth receives from the sun about 1,370 watts per square meter. Let’s convert that to watts per square kilometer: (1,370)(1000)(1000)= 1, 370,000,000 watts per square kilometer (One billion three hundred and seventy million). We can now cover all roads and driveways with durable solar cells. Not all the earth is cement, but let’s cover all roads, driveways, and rooftops with solar cells and say that is one half of the earth’s land area: (1/2)(170, 363, 166 km^2) = 85,181,583 square kilometers covered in solar cells. One half of the the earth surface points toward sun at any moment, that is, the sun rises, and sets twelve hours later. Let us, then, divide that last figure by two: 85,181,583/2 = 42,590,791 square kilometers 42,590,791 square kilometers of solar collectors are receiving sunlight for twelve hours. But let us say from 11:00 AM to 1:00PM, the sun is directly over head and the collectors are receiving the most light. Let us in fact say, we only run our solar cells for those three hours, which are, in seconds: 3(60 min)(60 sec) = 10,800 seconds
3 of 3 42, 590, 791 square kilometers receives 1,370,000,000 watts per square kilometer, or: (42, 590, 791 km^2)(1,370,000,000 watts/km^2) = 5.8E16 watts watts are joules per second, where joules are energy. Let us multiply that by our three hours: (5.8E16 joules/second)(10,800 seconds) = 6.26E20 joules of energy ~ 6E20 Joules That says if we cover half the land area in solar collectors, that is 6 exponent 20 joules of energy collected from the sun in three hours. Six exponent 20 means a six followed by 20 zeroes, a very large number. Let us convert energy in joules, to energy in calories, a unit of measurement we are all familiar with. There are 4.184 Joules per calorie, so: (6E20 joules)(Calories/4.184 joules) = 1.43E20 Calories The earth can collect 1.43E20 Calories of energy from the sun in three hours, if we cover have the land area in solar collectors. Let us divide that by the seven billion people on earth: 1.43E20/7,000,000,000 = 2E10 calories That is, if we cover half the land area of the earth in solar collectors and run our solar collectors for three hours every day, that is 2E10 calories for each person, free, every day. How much energy is that? Let us look at the nutrition energy on a box of corn flakes. It says each serving has 110 calories and that there are 11 servings in a box. That is (110)(11) = 1,210 calories per box of corn flakes. Let us divide that into the calories of energy we get from the sun in three hours:
2E10/1,210=16,528,926 boxes of corn flakes per person a day That is, to conclude, if we cover half the earth land area in solar collectors and run those collectors for 3 hours a day, with a population of 7 billion people (41 people per square kilometer) we can give to each of them sixteen million five hundred and twenty eight thousand nine hundred and twenty six boxes of cornflakes, in energy, free every day. Also, when we cover so much land area in solar cells, much of the sun’s energy hitting the earth is converted into electricity, and so does not go into warming the earth, and, as such we solve the problem of global warming at the same time. Ian Beardsley September 26, 2015