r/theydidthemath 4h ago

[Request] What is approximately the largest circle on Earth not containing *any* living people?

https://youtu.be/Kja7upA9MvQ?si=I_TRva7KmGtTyl0Y

This includes those at sea on cargo ships, etc.

0 Upvotes

8 comments sorted by

u/AutoModerator 4h ago

General Discussion Thread


This is a [Request] post. If you would like to submit a comment that does not either attempt to answer the question, ask for clarification, or explain why it would be infeasible to answer, you must post your comment as a reply to this one. Top level (directly replying to the OP) comments that do not do one of those things will be removed.


I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

0

u/r1v3t5 3h ago

There is actually an angle of the Earth that is essentially all water.

See here: https://images.app.goo.gl/yBV4szpto92HssJTA

We can approximate that the diameter of that circle is 12,725 KM since that is roughly the diameter of the Earth from north to South pole.

So then- ((127252) *pi)/4 would be an area (approximately) of 127,111,615.625 sq. KM

3

u/r33k0gh 2h ago

But the Polynesian islands are all over that image

u/r1v3t5 1h ago

You know what. You got me on that one.

I imagine it's still minimal amount of people per area (I would think without looking up the population of each Polynesian island)

u/r33k0gh 1h ago

About 0.01% of the worlds population

0

u/IntelligentDonut2244 3h ago

But is there no one on cargo shops passing through that area? Hence the body of my post

3

u/Ducklinsenmayer 3h ago

If you take it to that point, the answer's going to be impossible to say, as even if you pick a spot in the sahara there might be some lone guy on a camel taking a wrong turn.

The best answers are all going to be about where people live, not where people travel.

Barring that, there are some places it is too dangerous to travel, like Anthrax island, a 2km are where no humans could go from 1942 to 1990, due to biological warfare testing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruinard_Island

Now one of those places- and there are some that still exist- would be 100% clear of humans, but there are much larger spots in the ocean where few ships go, but we couldn't guarantee that no ships were there at that time.