The question of how many humans could fit inside the Sun is a fascinating thought experiment that immediately confronts the mind with incomprehensible scale. This hypothetical scenario ignores the Sun’s reality as an intensely hot, dense sphere of plasma, focusing instead on a purely quantitative analysis of volume.
Defining the Key Variables for Calculation
Answering this purely mathematical problem requires establishing the precise volume of the two primary variables: the Sun and the average human being. The Sun’s mean radius is approximately 696,000 kilometers, resulting in a staggering total volume.
The Sun’s volume is calculated to be roughly \(1.4 \times 10^{27}\) cubic meters. For context, approximately 1.3 million Earths could be contained within its boundaries. This number provides the necessary scale for the calculation.
The second variable is the standardized volume of a single human. Scientific studies approximate the mean volume of the adult human body to be around 65 liters, or \(0.065\) cubic meters. This figure assumes a consistent density, similar to water, allowing us to treat all humans as uniform units for the calculation. These two figures are the foundation for determining the theoretical capacity.
The Simple Theoretical Capacity (Perfect Packing)
Once the volumes are established, the simplest calculation is a straightforward division yielding the absolute maximum capacity. This method assumes a perfect packing scenario, utilizing the entire volume of the Sun with zero wasted space. Such a calculation treats humans as perfectly stackable cubes, allowing for 100% packing efficiency.
Dividing the Sun’s volume (\(1.4 \times 10^{27}\) m³) by the average human volume (\(0.065\) m³) results in approximately \(2.15 \times 10^{28}\) humans. This number represents the theoretical maximum capacity under idealized and physically impossible conditions.
Perfect packing serves only as an upper boundary in geometric problems. Irregular objects, like the human form, cannot be arranged without leaving significant gaps. This maximum figure must be adjusted downward to account for the inherent inefficiency of stacking non-cubic shapes, setting the stage for a more realistic estimate.
Accounting for Packing Efficiency and Reality
The calculation must be refined because human bodies are irregular, non-cubic objects, making it impossible to fill any space with 100% efficiency. When stacking objects that approximate the human shape, space is inevitably lost. This lost space is quantified by the packing efficiency, or the density of the arrangement.
For spheres, the maximum theoretical density for close-packing is about 74%. However, for irregularly shaped objects like humans, a more conservative packing factor must be applied. Using a factor of 65% (or 0.65) accounts for the awkwardness of the human form and the difficulty of tight arrangement.
Applying this 65% efficiency factor to the theoretical maximum of \(2.15 \times 10^{28}\) humans yields a more considered final estimate. The adjusted capacity is approximately \(1.40 \times 10^{28}\) humans. This number, while still enormous, is a more physically grounded answer to the question of how many humans could be contained within the Sun’s volume.
Putting the Number in Perspective
The final calculated number, \(1.40 \times 10^{28}\) humans, is enormous. To give this scale context, the current global population is approximately \(8.3\) billion people, or \(8.3 \times 10^9\). The maximum capacity of the Sun is nearly \(1.7\) septillion times greater than the entire current population of Earth.
If the entire population of the world were placed inside the Sun, the total volume they would occupy would be less than one billionth of the Sun’s total volume. The Sun could contain the population of Earth, and repeat this process for over a billion billion times. This demonstrates the vast scale of the Sun’s volume relative to a single human life.