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By getting 600,000,000 people around the world to jump at the same time, a German artist hopes to nudge Earth into a different orbit.
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Hans Peter Niesward, from the Department of Gravitationsphysik at the ISA in Munich, says we can stop global warming in one big jump.
The slightlydisheveledprofessor states his case on WorldJumpDay.org, an Internet site created to recruit 600,000,000 volunteers to jump simultaneously on July 20 at 11:39:13 GMT in an effort to shift Earth's position.
Niesward claims that on this day "Earth occupies one of the most fragile positions in its orbits for the last 100 years." According to the site, the shift in orbit will make the Earth a little further way from the sun and "stop global warming, extend daytime hours and create a more homogeneous climate."
However, Niesward doesn't really exist. He is a character created by Torsten Lauschmann, a German-born artist living in Scotland. Niesward is Lauschmann himself or an actor.
Lauschmann's multimedia approach has allowed him to explore a wide variety of subjects, including butterflies, paparazzi photos and, now, aflash-mobexperiment.
In 2005, Lauschmann encouraged scientists and bloggers from around the world to discuss World Jump Day.
"He thought it would just circulate among friends, but it quickly seemed to morph. Within weeks it was global - people in Australia were talking about it on the radio," said Neil Mulholland, areaderin contemporary art theory at Edinburgh College of Art. "The more it was discussed, the more people joined the site, and it crashed several times."
But will people jump out of environmental activism or a commitment to the bizarre?
Members of the online environmental site treehugger.com have been debating not only the physical possibility of the jump's promise but the morality of its outcome.
Some believe it's risky to alter Earth's orbit, while others fear the jump will make the Gregorian calendar obsolete because of the length of Earth's new orbit. Others doubt the ability of the world's population to synchronize an event like this.
The folks at madphysics.com have constructed an anti-World Jump Day equations drawn up to dispute the validity of Niesward's - or Lauschmann's - theories.
One word of caution: The site tells those of us living in the eastern part of the United States to jump at 6:39:13 because we are five hours behind GMT, but that is not true in July. Because ofdaylight savings time, Lauschmann has a part of the United States jumping an hour early.
(Agencies)
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慕尼黑ISA研究中心地球引力物理學部門的漢斯·彼得·尼斯瓦德說，只要我們一起猛跳一下，就能解決全球變暖問題。
這位有點不修邊幅的教授在"世界跳躍日"網站上對他的理論進行了解釋。而創建"世界跳躍日"網站的目的是招募6億志愿者，讓他們在7月20日格林尼治標準時間11時39分13秒這一刻一起跳躍，以改變地球的位置。
尼斯瓦德教授說，在7月20日這一天，"地球處于運行軌道上一百年來最薄弱的位置上"。根據網站上的解釋，地球位置的改變將使其離太陽遠一點，從而“阻止全球變暖，延長白晝，并能使氣候更加同一化”。
然而，尼斯瓦德這個人并不存在。他是居住在蘇格蘭的德裔藝術家托斯頓·勞希曼虛構出來的一個人物。這位“尼斯瓦德教授”要么是勞希曼本人，要么是一名演員。
托斯頓·勞希曼利用多媒體探討過很多課題，其中包括蝴蝶、抓拍照片，現在，又搞起了閃客實驗。
2005年，勞希曼號召全世界的科學家和博友們一起來討論“世界跳躍日”的問題。
愛丁堡藝術學院當代藝術理論高級講師尼爾·穆赫蘭德說：“他原以為這只會在朋友中傳一傳，誰知道這個討論后來迅速傳開，幾個星期之內，就舉世皆知--澳大利亞人都在廣播上討論了這事。隨著這個問題被討論的越來越熱烈，到網站登記當志愿者的人也越來越多，網站都被擠爆了好幾回?！?/p>
但是，人們是出于環境的考慮而跳，還是因為好奇呢？
環境網站treehugger.com的成員們對這一跳的可行性及其結果的真實性進行了爭論。
有些人認為改變地球軌道太危險，其他一些人則擔心由于這一跳會使地球軌道變長，所以要改寫公歷。另有人懷疑全世界的人同時來做這樣一件事情不大可能。
瘋狂物理網站的成員們構建了一個反對世界跳躍日的公式，對尼斯瓦德--也就是勞希曼的理論進行了駁斥。
此外，世界跳躍日網站提示：由于美國東部所處時區比格林尼治標準時間晚5個小時，所以那里的人應在6時39分13秒跳，但現在是7月，不存在這個問題。由于現在是夏令時，所以美國部分地區的人們要提前一個小時跳。
(英語點津姍姍編輯)
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