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submitted 1 month ago by Iron_Lynx@lemmy.world to c/xkcd@lemmy.world

Alt text:
I wonder what surviving human held the record before balloons (excluding edge cases like jumping gaps on a mountain bridge). Probably it was someone falling from a cliff into snow or water, but maybe it involved something weird like a gunpowder explosion or volcano.

Explainxkcd: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3039:_Human_Altitude

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[-] kbal@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago

I'm more interested in the altitude of the median human. I suppose it's increased slightly since the invention of office buildings, chairs, and so on.

[-] sbv@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Chairs were a game changer

[-] pixelscript@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago

I wonder if it may well have gone down with the combination of boom in population and rapid urbanization around coasts.

[-] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago

The pre-1800 numbers sound too low. There are lots of old buildings much higher than 10 meters high, and I doubt they were all unoccupied at the same time.

this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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