What if all the people

World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation. Good Subscriber Account active since Shortcuts.

Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading The sound of all those feet hitting the ground creates a loud, drawn-out roar which lasts many seconds. A cell phone comes out of a pocket. The cell networks have all collapsed under the unprecedented load. The T. Green airport in Warwick, Rhode Island handles a few thousand passengers a day.

Crowds climb on board container ships in the deepwater port of Providence, but stocking sufficient food and water for a long sea voyage proves a challenge. Moments later, I, I, and I become the sites of the largest traffic jam in the history of the planet. Most of the cars are engulfed by the crowds, but a lucky few get out and begin wandering the abandoned road network. Some make it past New York or Boston before running out of fuel. Who can stop you? All the cops are in Rhode Island.

The edge of the crowd spreads outward into southern Massachusetts and Connecticut. Any two people who meet are unlikely to have a language in common, and almost nobody knows the area.

All would be as it once was," he told Life's Little Mysteries. The situation is much like two objects of very different masses connected by a spring. If you pull the masses apart and then let go, the force of the spring pulls them back together. The smaller mass moves much more than the larger mass, but both move. The Earth and the people are much like these two masses, Allain explained, except that "in this case, the spring is like gravity.

Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter nattyover. Live Science.