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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学部门的汉斯·彼得·尼斯瓦德说，只要我们一起猛跳一下，就能解决全球变暖问题。
这位有点不修边幅的教授在"世界跳跃日"网站上对他的理论进行了解释。而创建"世界跳跃日"网站的目的是招募6亿志愿者，让他们在7月20日格林尼治标准时间11时39分13秒这一刻一起跳跃，以改变地球的位置。
尼斯瓦德教授说，在7月20日这一天，"地球处于运行轨道上一百年来最薄弱的位置上"。根据网站上的解释，地球位置的改变将使其离太阳远一点，从而“阻止全球变暖，延长白昼，并能使气候更加同一化”。
然而，尼斯瓦德这个人并不存在。他是居住在苏格兰的德裔艺术家托斯顿·劳希曼虚构出来的一个人物。这位“尼斯瓦德教授”要么是劳希曼本人，要么是一名演员。
托斯顿·劳希曼利用多媒体探讨过很多课题，其中包括蝴蝶、抓拍照片，现在，又搞起了闪客实验。
2005年，劳希曼号召全世界的科学家和博友们一起来讨论“世界跳跃日”的问题。
爱丁堡艺术学院当代艺术理论高级讲师尼尔·穆赫兰德说：“他原以为这只会在朋友中传一传，谁知道这个讨论后来迅速传开，几个星期之内，就举世皆知--澳大利亚人都在广播上讨论了这事。随着这个问题被讨论的越来越热烈，到网站登记当志愿者的人也越来越多，网站都被挤爆了好几回。”
但是，人们是出于环境的考虑而跳，还是因为好奇呢？
环境网站treehugger.com的成员们对这一跳的可行性及其结果的真实性进行了争论。
有些人认为改变地球轨道太危险，其他一些人则担心由于这一跳会使地球轨道变长，所以要改写公历。另有人怀疑全世界的人同时来做这样一件事情不大可能。
疯狂物理网站的成员们构建了一个反对世界跳跃日的公式，对尼斯瓦德--也就是劳希曼的理论进行了驳斥。
此外，世界跳跃日网站提示：由于美国东部所处时区比格林尼治标准时间晚5个小时，所以那里的人应在6时39分13秒跳，但现在是7月，不存在这个问题。由于现在是夏令时，所以美国部分地区的人们要提前一个小时跳。
(英语点津姗姗编辑)
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