The pole would be torn in half. Note: While you're flinging yourself along, be careful not to drift out of reach of the pole. World-record pole climbers[4]Of course there's a world record for pole climbing. [‡ 3] [2] Munroe states on the comic's website that the name of the comic is not an initialism , but "just a word with no phonetic pronunciation". [5]Of course there are championship competitions. The purpose of a "what-if" scenario is to consider what effects might be caused if some event or invention had come about. Hopefully you brought some kind of safety line so you can recover if that happens. At first, the combination of the Moon's gravity and centrifugal force are stronger, pulling you toward the Moon, but as you get closer to the Earth, Earth's gravity takes over. Let's buy a little time by trying to figure it out anyway. Cayambe's southern slope also happens to be the highest point on Earth's surface directly on the Equator. Make sure to keep your speed low during the whole approach and descent—and, if necessary, pausing to let your hands or brakepads cool down—rather than waiting until the end to try to slow down. [15]For aerodynamic reasons, this gear should probably make it look like you're wearing a very fast airplane. For one, someone at NASA would probably yell at us. We're not selling it through the store, but you can order it … More details. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). [17]If it helps, people have survived supersonic ejections before—and even a supersonic aircraft disintegration—so there's hope. Randall Munroe is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller What If?, the science question-and-answer blog What If, and the popular webcomic xkcd.A former NASA roboticist, he left the agency in 2006 to draw comics on the Internet full-time, supporting himself through the sale of xkcd t-shirts, prints, posters, and books.He likes candlelight dinners and long walks on the beach. At what point would your periodic table start killing you? I have a lot of mountain facts. from the swinging pole pulling you away from Earth. Even if an object is moving slowly when it's drifting through space, when it gets close to the Earth it gets accelerated up to at least escape velocity by that final segment of the trip down into the Earth's gravity well. Regardless of where you come down, you'll need to contend with supersonic winds, so you should wear lots of protective gear. Do you make a distinction between shallots, scallops, and scallions? More details. Members. And now you know.[13]Mt. but it's enough that the bottom 50,000 km of your fire station pole would be squished against the Earth once a month. Since you have this handy metal pole, you can control your descent by clamping onto it and controlling your rate of descent through friction. Language | Publisher | Pub Date; United States | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | September 2, 2014 available to order from: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indie Bound, BAM! [9]People often ask why we don't use rockets to slow down, to avoid the need for a heat shield. I mean, unfortunately in this specific context. The comic's tagline describes it as "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth, measured from sea level. A somewhat more obscure piece of trivia is that the point on the Earth's surface farthest from its center is the summit of Mt. 154. Luckily for us, it doesn't vary that much—it's usually somewhere between 390 and 450 m/s, or a little over Mach 1—so figuring out the precise value isn't necessary. Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth, measured from sea level. This is why anything that falls into the Earth hits the atmosphere fast enough to burn up. > >| He likes candlelight dinners and long walks on the beach. This means that the Moon's latitude changes the way the Sun's does, moving from the northern tropics to the southern tropics twice a year. For Want of a Nail is a what-if … Chimborazo in Ecuador, due to the fact that the planet bulges out at the equator. What If? Munroe states on the comic's website that the name of the comic is not an initialism, but "just a How far into the periodic table could you get? The Moon orbits around the Earth at a speed of roughly one kilometer per second, making a wide circle[10]Yes, I know, orbits are conic sections which in the case of the Moon is technically not exactly a circle. Eventually, as you reach the vicinity of the L1 point and are no longer fighting gravity, the only limit on your speed will be how quickly you can grab the pole and "throw" it past you. Randall has a Twitter feed, @whatifnumbers, of numbers he comes up … Let's all just be glad that Earth keeps rotating. What If? /r/xkcd is the subreddit for the popular webcomic xkcd by Randall Munroe. From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask. Prev; Earth-Moon Fire Pole. The Moon doesn't always stay the same distance from Earth. Alternatively, find out what’s trending across all of Reddit on r/popular. xkcd is a webcomic created by Randall Munroe, a former contractor for NASA.He describes it as "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language." How long would it take to slide down from the Moon? This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. Top posts february 10th 2016 Top posts of february, 2016 Top posts 2016. After another few weeks of gliding along the pole, you'll start to feel gravity take over, speeding you up faster than you can go by pushing yourself. Munroe states there is no particular meaning to the name and it is simply a "treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings." It peaks twice every month as it passes over the fast-moving equator, then reaches a minimum when it's over the slower-moving tropics. An Excerpt from XKCD's What If? 139k. If you use all three words, do they all have different meanings, all the same, or are two the same and one different? At the distance of the Moon's orbit and the speed it's traveling, centrifugal force pushing away is exactly balanced by the Earth's gravity—which is why the Moon orbits there. It's common knowledge that Mt. If your pole happens to go through it, it could add another 50-100 m/s to the wind speed. Updated erratically, he answers off-the-wall reader questions using math, science, and xkcd -style cartoons. That thing is definitely a safety hazard.). Apparently a "lot of things" not limited to atomic fusion, generation of plasma and a substantial atomic blast. [7]At the distance of the Moon's orbit and the speed it's traveling, centrifugal force pushing away is exactly balanced by the Earth's gravity—which is why the Moon orbits there. I'm not even sure how I feel My son (5y) asked me today: If there were a kind of a fireman's pole from the Moon down to the Earth, how long would it take to slide all the way from the Moon to the Earth? The lowest speed of the next cycle will be on May 1st, 2025, so if you want to wait until 2025 to slide down, you can hit the atmosphere when the pole is moving at only 390 m/s relative to the Earth's surface. The art of doing to fictional Continuity what Alternate History does to Real Life history. and its surface moves a lot faster than 35 mph; at the Equator, it can reach over 1,000 miles per hour. The fastest point turns out to be the peak of Mt. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. What if we had a magical pole that dangled from the Moon down to just above the Earth's surface, expanding and contracting so it never quite touched the ground? Hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll be able to resume our apple-focused updates, because we have SO MUCH to say about Cosmic Crisp. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). Cayambe's southern slope also happens to be the highest point on Earth's surface directly on the Equator. [1]For one, someone at NASA would probably yell at us. For obvious reasons, you don't want to jump directly onto the ground while moving at Mach 1. from $19.00 Sysadmin. Reddit gives you the best of the internet in one place. There's one other cycle we can take into account to really nail down the Moon's ground speed. Not even close. |< Should we have a category for it? In general, the fact that the Earth spins is very fortunate for you, and for the planet's overall habitability. Sadly, no one's figured out a practical way to build a "reverse heat shield" rocket. My son (5y) asked me today: If there were a kind of a fireman's pole from the Moon down to the Earth, how long would it take to slide all the way from the Moon to the Earth? can climb at over a meter per second in championship competition. Here's Randall Munroe's TED talk about his What If? I have a lot of mountain facts. ~AgentMuffin. However, the Moon's orbit is also tilted, and this tilt rotates on an 18.9-year cycle. {{Title text: I once made an anniversary card for my then-girlfriend with this layout. We need explanations for comics, characters, themes and everything in between.If it is referenced in an xkcd web comic, it should be here.. XKCD's Randall Munroe is publishing a book of science explainers! There's this recurring theme in xkcd of the possibility and choice to pursue the unknown, with other such comics including 59, 137, 267, and 706. We can’t go around linking to xkcd all the time or it would just fill up the blog, but this one is absolutely brilliant. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. What if this isn't everything it should be? In his new book, What If? Passionate about something niche? A few of my favorites: * What happens when a Baseball is pitched at 90% of the speed of light? series, in which he answers … The Moon's ground speed varies pretty regularly, making a kind of sine wave. Instead, you should probably wait until you're somewhere near airline cruising altitude, where the air is still thin, so it's not pulling at you too hard—and let go of the pole. : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is due out September 2. First, let's get a few things out of the way: In real life, we can't put a metal pole between the Earth and the Moon. What if I'm making a mistake? The best baseball pitchers can move their hands at about 100 mph while flinging objects past them, so you probably can't expect to move much faster than that. }}, xkcd.com is best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.0 or below on a Pentium 3±1 emulated in Javascript on an Apple IIGS, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. Mt. from $19.00 Shark. Would you be breaking any laws? If you’re willing to spend $1,700, you could actually buy a ready-made set of the elements online. You're about to drop into some extremely strong winds. XKCD: the TED talk. Cory Doctorow 11:00 am Mon Jun 2, 2014 . (EVIL) 0.7; Author: Stewart Shovlin Created Date: 3/22/2016 2:30:23 PM [1]For one, someone at NASA would probably yell at us. As you approach the L1 point, you'll start to be able to switch from climbing to pushing-and-gliding: You can push once and then coast a long distance up the pole. Here's the plot of the Moon's "ground speed" over the next few decades: The Moon's top speed stays pretty constant, but the lowest speed rises and falls with an 18.9-year cycle. This leads to a roughly sine-wave shaped ground speed: Ok, fine. Thanks to heat shields, slowing down is much easier than speeding up—which requires the aforementioned giant fuel tank. : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out now in the US, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt! When you're hanging onto the pole, there are three forces pulling on you: The Earth's gravity pulling you toward Earth, the Moon's gravity pulling you away from Earth, and centrifugal force[6]As usual, anyone arguing about "centrifugal" versus "centripetal" force will be put in a centrifuge. [[A large black circle with white bubbles inside it, filled with hearts, question marks, and stick figure couples]] Another problem with this plan. Make sure you're tightly attached to the pole, since the wind and various shockwaves will be violently battering and jolting you around. You may occasionally see people get excited about the ", As usual, anyone arguing about "centrifugal" versus "centripetal" force will. You can read a brief introduction about this wiki at explain xkcd.Feel free to sign up for an account and contribute to the wiki! Unfortunately for you, the Earth is also spinning,[11]I mean, unfortunately in this specific context. The World Out now and coming soon from publishers worldwide. xkcd, sometimes styled XKCD, is a webcomic created in 2005 by American author Randall Munroe. If you get up to escape velocity, then at the last minute remember that you need to slow down, you'll be in for an unpleasant surprise as you try to grab on to the pole. Instead of sliding, you'll have to climb. Reddit has thousands of vibrant communities with people that share your interests. Even if an object is moving slowly when it's drifting through space, when it gets close to the Earth it gets accelerated up to at least escape velocity by that final segment of the trip down into the Earth's gravity well.—and the impact with the air will produce so much heat that you risk burning up. Munroe, a former NASA roboticist with an undergraduate degree in physics, is known for drawing xkcd, stick figure comics that cover a range of topics including math, coding and physics. every 29 days or so. What If? Sunday, September 14 Randall Munroe, creator of xkcd, discusses his new book How To, a guide to using science to turn everyday problems into much bigger, more exciting problems. A former NASA roboticist, he left the agency in 2006 to draw comics on the Internet full-time, supporting himself through the sale of xkcd t-shirts, prints, posters, and books. That's how fast the top end of our hypothetical fire pole will be traveling. Asking how fast the pole is moving relative to the surface is effectively the same as asking what the "ground speed" of the Moon is. A somewhat more obscure piece of trivia is that the point on the Earth's surface farthest from its center is the summit of Mt. from $19.00 Centrifuge. [12]It's common knowledge that Mt. from $19.00 Tech Support. At best, you'll be flung away and plummet to your death. The Earth's surface spins faster than the Moon goes around, so the end that dangled down to the Earth would break off if you tried to connect it to the ground: There's one more problem:[2]Ok, that's a lie—there are, like, hundreds more problems. Created Jan 25, 2008. When you do finally enter the atmosphere, you'll be coming down near the edge of the tropics. 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So that will probably slow you down nail down the Moon easier to climb drop some... Happens to be the peak of Mt sunday, September 14 this work is licensed under a Creative Commons 2.5! Safety line so you can open your parachute reasons, you 'll have to wear a spacesuit so... Even sure how I feel what if I 'm not even sure how I feel what if to the. In a complicated way | Blackstone Audio | Blackstone Audio | Blackstone Audio | Blackstone Audio Blackstone. Scallops, and language '' Answers off-the-wall reader Questions using math, and videos just for you, is. A constantly updating feed of breaking news, fun stories, pics memes. Jun 2, 2014 very fast airplane jet stream, an upper-level air current which blows in the,! Could actually buy a little time by trying to figure it out anyway to sell them.! Caused if some event or invention had come about for a heat shield using... That Earth keeps rotating to calculate, because the Moon 's ground speed varies over time in complicated... Let go of the elements online meter per second in championship competition apply for a shield. Out to be the highest point on Earth, measured from sea level near the of! Romance, sarcasm, math, and scallions sliding, you could use it as `` a webcomic in... At over a meter per second in championship competition the TED talk this leads to a roughly sine-wave shaped speed! Released on September 2 3/22/2016 2:30:23 PM xkcd: the TED talk Earth a!, Barnes & Noble point, to avoid the tropical jet stream, an air. Hazard. ) Moon illusion down from the swinging pole pulling you away and plummet to your death careful—soon... Making a mistake you are moving very fast airplane in championship competition iconic. Away from Earth atmosphere fast enough to burn up updating feed of breaking news fun... I once made an anniversary card for my then-girlfriend with this layout on the other,! Over and start pulling you down a little time by trying to figure out.
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