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Philadelphia Students Look To Move The Earth With A Big Jump

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Schoolkids throughout the city will be jumping up and down at the same time tomorrow morning. It's all in the interest of science.

The Big Jump, as it's called, kicks off the Philadelphia Science Festival.  Kids at schools citywide will be jumping up and down between 11:00 and 11:01 tomorrow morning, to see if they can move the seismic needle on computer vibration sensors at their schools.

"We know that somewhere in the neighborhood of a million people would really have to jump to have a real impact where it would show up as any kind of concern on anybody's meter" says Darlene Cavalier, who  runs the blog Science Cheerleader. "But in this case, 100 kids in a classroom or in a school can actually move the meter in their own school."

The Big Jump was scheduled long before the Japan earthquake provided a real-life lesson on the impact of seismic activity.

Reported by Mike DeNardo, KYW Newsradio

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