Whether an active traveler or a couch potato, you travel more than you think. According to a new report, people travel a trillion miles in their lifetime.
The Motion of the Universe and Your Lifespan Travel
In their lifetime, most people will travel between 30,000 and 50,000 miles (50,000 and 80,000 kilometers), while some world travelers will go considerably further. That's an astonishingly huge distance - enough to circle the planet at least once - especially given that most people accrue most of these miles via commutes and quick errands.
However, since most individuals don't reside near the equator, the average person is estimated to move at a constant speed of about 1,500 km/h (930 mph). When you add that up over an average lifespan of nearly 80 years, each travels roughly 600 million miles (1 billion kilometers).
Over an 80-year lifespan, that amounts to a cumulative travel of 930 billion miles (1.5 trillion km). You will still go that far even if you never leave your house; that's quite an accomplishment!
The difference between it and our travel on Earth's surface is enormous. Earth orbits the sun in addition to its revolution.
Due to the elliptic nature of its orbit, our planet periodically moves faster or slower concerning its distance from the sun. However, the average speed of Earth's orbit is around 30 kilometers per second (19 miles per second).
Each year that translates to over 600 million miles (1 billion km). So each of us travels about 50 billion miles (80 billion km) in our lifetimes, which again dwarfs the distance we travel only from the spinning of our globe.
However, the cosmos contains other moving objects besides Earth.
The Milky Way galaxy's galactic center is where the sun orbits in a protracted, leisurely fashion. These "galactic years" last approximately 230 million Earth years. To put that in context, life first appeared on Earth approximately 17 galactic years ago, and the sun will expire in just 25 more.
A human lifespan is hardly apparent about these massive galactic scales, and the sun barely moves along its circle. However, on a human scale, it's virtually incomprehensible; we will travel over 370 million miles (600 billion km) in our lifetime due to the speed of the sun orbiting the Milky Way's core.
Benefits of Walking
People are encouraged to move more to maintain a healthy weight and body. The report about us making more motion than we thought is great news.
Walking is an excellent form of physical activity and offers several health benefits. A 30-minute daily walk or most days of the week can improve one's overall health. It can increase cardiovascular and pulmonary fitness, reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, improve conditions like diabetes and joint and muscular pain, reduce body fat, and increase muscle strength and endurance.
You can incorporate walking into your daily routine by taking the stairs instead of a lift, getting off the public transport one stop earlier and walking to your work or office, walking to the local shop, or taking your pet for a stroll.
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