
Could Earth’s Entire Population Really Fit Inside Lake Superior?
Assessing the real-life scale of objects and people is a strange niche of mine. It's one of those fun facts that is completely inconsequential but also makes you go huh, wow. Like how you could fit the entire country of England inside the state of Texas, or this video showing how many ants there are in the world.
It's just incredible to think about how big the world really is. So, when I stumbled across the subreddit r/theydidthemath, an entire page dedicated to people actually doing the math on wild "what if" thoughts and more, I got really excited when someone asked the question
"If every person on earth went for a swim in Lake Superior, how packed in would everyone be?"

The poster wanted to know whether it would be elbow-to-elbow or if people would have some breathing room. Considering Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world with a surface area of 32,000 square miles (82,170 square kilometers), it isn't a ridiculous question.
As the name of the Reddit suggests, someone (aka Appropriate-Falcon75) did the math.
Comment
byu/Apprehensive_Oven_22 from discussion
intheydidthemath
Ten feet between each person is a lot of room. If you think about the 6-foot social distancing metric from during the COVID-19 pandemic, 10 feet is more than enough space if you lie on your back and float comfortably.
READ MORE: The Law Inspired by the Edmund Fitzgerald Shipwreck
It really just goes to show how large these Great Lakes really are.
Barge 129 Shipwreck Discovered in Lake Superior After 120 Years
Gallery Credit: Janna
Ludington State Park Construction Before and After
Gallery Credit: Tommy McNeill

