Science Puzzle
Could You Jump Over a House on the Moon?
The Moon's gravity is only about one sixth of Earth's, so you can jump roughly six times higher there. On Earth a good standing jump lifts you maybe half a metre off the ground.
Could you jump clean over a house on the Moon?
The Answer
No, and the arithmetic is the fun part. On Earth a decent standing jump raises your body by around half a metre. Six times that is about three metres. Impressive, higher than a basketball hoop, but a typical house is roughly five metres to the eaves and more to the ridge. You would sail up past the ground floor windows and come nowhere near the roof.
The lesson is to be careful multiplying the wrong starting number. "Six times higher" sounds like it should clear anything, until you remember it is six times your actual jump, not six times the height of a building. In a full spacesuit, which is heavy and stiff, the real Apollo astronauts managed more of a bounding shuffle than a leap.
You could, however, jump over a car, a fence, or a small shed with room to spare, which is still a spectacular thing a human could never do on Earth.
The principle: Gravity varies between worlds. Lower gravity multiplies your jump height by the same factor, but you must scale your real Earth jump, not the size of the obstacle.