Lots of bad science and urban myths perpetuated in kids books. I recently read a book to my child that claimed you can see the Great Wall of China from space. Not true ( though a satellite can apparently).

I also remember reading a book about Canada that gave you the impression that we all live in igloos and fight Caribou.

Checking on the accuracy of kids science books would probably be a good study for someone.

It must have meant 'on a space ship,' notice our female friend isn't wearing any sort of space suit.

As we all know, it's physically impossible to build a space ship with rooms any taller than, say, 12 feet high. I'm six feet tall and can normally jump 1 foot in the air. In my space ship I'd be able to jump six feet in the air at which point my head would hit the ceiling. This, of course, is six times the height I can normally jump.

Never question a McDonald's fun fact.

They totally mean the moon. Think of all those videos with Neil Armstrong.

It's not exactly surprising that the science educations of McDonald's Happy Meal copywriters is imperfect.

You are incredibly smart. Kudos to you!

The two WORST examples of quasi-science I've seen were both "Jamba Juice" ephemera:

* What appeared to be a employee-generated list of the benefits of wheat grass. Among other claims: If you put wheat grass between you and a TV, it will absorb harmful radiation. DUHHHH!

* An article in the give-away Jamba Juice newsletter quoted some new-age wonk who somehow conflated photons and electrons and thought fruit contained sun energy. Not "nutrients created by photosynthesis" but some kind of mystical photonic sun energy. That your body's atoms screamed out for. DUH! DUHHHHH!

Of course, all of our indignity and outrage won't change things. We're talking about epemera generated by advertising copywriters who got a BA in Communications.

"Find a spot in the pool where your shoulders are just out of the water. Now hop like a bunny. This is how it feels to walk on the moon! Try it, it's fun!"

Bleh. At least, that's the way I would've written that fun fact. Besides, the thought of dozens of kids moonwalking/bunny-hopping in a pool fills me with nerdy glee.

Of course, the McDonalds statement is perfectly true. You can in fact jump six times as high in space, or ten times, or fifty times... the lack of gravity makes for wonderful jumping. Of course, getting back down, that's another matter. By the way, that whole 'need spacesuit, no air... gasp' scenario is of course an urban myth. Anyone who has gone up in a tall building can tell you that air continues to exist as you go towards space. NASA suits were just a misguided attempt to influence the fashion industry.

gravitational force = G*M1*M2/R^2 where G is the gravitational constant, M1 and M2 are the masses of the two bodies and R is the distance between the centers of mass of the two bodies. The ratio of gravitational forces on a person (M1) on the earth and on the moon is (G*M1*Mearth/Rearth^2)/(G*M1*Mmoon/Rmoon^2) or, simplified, (Mearth/Rearth^2)*(Rmoon^2/Mmoon). This is (5.9742e24/6373^2)*(1737^2/7.3466e22) with units in km and kg. Do the math (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%285....6e22%29&btnG=Search) and, voila, the force on the surface of the earth is 6.04 times the force on the surface of the moon.

Here's my question for the physics-non-challenged among us:

Assuming they meant "on the moon," and not "in space," and given that your weight on the moon is roughly one sixth that of your weight on the earth...does that necessarily mean you'd be able to jump six times higher on the moon than you can on earth?

I have a hunch that's not necessarily so, but I don't have the physics or mathematical chops to say one way or the other.

Welcome to my world.

I passed high school entirely on information I gained from McDonald's Happy Meal bags, as well as by consuming large amounts of cold medicine and selling information to the administrators.

They were going to let me shoot the big death missiles from submarines in the Navy.

But my McDonald's physique caused me to sustain severe injuries while in training, so they sent me home.

Don't worry, a guy with Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder got my job instead.

Gravitational potential energy = height * weight. Thus, if weight-on-moon is 1/6th of weight-on-earth, then a jump with the same energy will climb to a height 6 times as high.

Well, if you jumped off anything in space, wouldn't you eventually land back on it again, theoretically?

i like space

McDonalds: Rots Your Body, Rots Your Mind.

  You could fit a whole lot more nonsense onto a Happy Meal bag. Hey, why not "I'm Lovin' It" in, like, eight hundred different languages? Yeesh.

  If we're talking about deep space, then no, jumping isn't relevant. Floating, drifting, wafting... lots of other phenomena may apply. But if we're talking about the moon, you couldn't jump six times what you could on Earth. Not a chance. The difference in gravity is only one factor to consider. Let's not forget all the heavy equipment you'd be wearing.

  All hail the new Mayor McCheese. Scienterrific!