I got a good laugh out of the ball of people in last week 's Security Now episode, especially th...

[G+_John Mink]

I got a good laugh out of the ball of people in last week's Security Now episode, especially the last part, which felt more like an XKCD's What-If more than anything else.  So I, having no idea what the word "reasonable" means, decided to throw another variable into the mix:

 

There are only 10^80 atoms per universe[1] Given that 10^27 atoms per person [2] We'd never get the ball of people with a 3*10^25 meter diameter requiring ~10^77 people, but we only have enough matter in the universe for ~10^53 people!

 

So we're already down by a factor of 10^24  (~2^80) and that's before removing any mass for a planet, or a sun (although, as pointed out, we'd be generating our own fusion so maybe a sun isn't relevant!)

 

I think we're good!

 

Sources:

[1] http://www.universetoday.com/36302/atoms-in-the-universe/

[2 ]http://education.jlab.org/qa/mathatom_04.html

http://www.universetoday.com/36302/atoms-in-the-universe/