If you’re willing to spend $1,700, you could actually buy a ready-made set of the elements online. On the other hand, you'll have to wear a spacesuit, so that will probably slow you down a little. Language | Publisher | Pub Date; United States | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | September 2, 2014 available to order from: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indie Bound, BAM! This work is licensed under a 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. Munroe announced in March, 2014 that he had signed a deal with publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to compile a large number of his What If? Chimborazo in Ecuador, due to the fact that the planet bulges out at the equator. Do you make a distinction between shallots, scallops, and scallions? People can climb poles pretty fast. More details. Cayambe's southern slope also happens to be the highest point on Earth's surface directly on the Equator. Since you have this handy metal pole, you can control your descent by clamping onto it and controlling your rate of descent through friction. [17]If it helps, people have survived supersonic ejections before—and even a supersonic aircraft disintegration—so there's hope. The Earth is pretty big, so you reach this point—which is known as the L1 Lagrange point—while you're still pretty close to the Moon. [1]For one, someone at NASA would probably yell at us. People often ask why we don't use rockets to slow down, to avoid the need for a heat shield. The bottom end of the pole makes a much smaller circle in the same amount of time, moving at an average speed of only about 35 mph relative to the center of the Moon's orbit: 35 miles per hour doesn't sound bad. When the Moon is over a point farther from the equator, it has a lower "ground speed," so the lower end of the sine wave goes lower. There's one other cycle we can take into account to really nail down the Moon's ground speed. In general, the fact that the Earth spins is very fortunate for you, and for the planet's overall habitability. I have a lot of mountain facts. [1]For one, someone at NASA would probably yell at us. For one, someone at NASA would probably yell at us. Randall has a Twitter feed, @whatifnumbers, of numbers he comes up … from $19.00 Sysadmin. The World Out now and coming soon from publishers worldwide. Online. The art of doing to fictional Continuity what Alternate History does to Real Life history. Even if you climb at better-than-world-record speed, it will still take you several years to get to the L1 crossover point. Prev; Earth-Moon Fire Pole. Alternatively, find out what’s trending across all of Reddit on r/popular. from $19.00 Correlation. 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? Passionate about something niche? I came across it in this post from Palko, which is on the topic of that Dow 36,000 guy who keeps falling up and up. This leads to a roughly sine-wave shaped ground speed: Ok, fine. If your pole happens to go through it, it could add another 50-100 m/s to the wind speed. Reddit gives you the best of the internet in one place. The fastest point turns out to be the peak of Mt. If you don't stop yourself, you'll reach the top of the atmosphere at roughly escape velocity—11 km/s[8]This is why anything that falls into the Earth hits the atmosphere fast enough to burn up. More details. The pole would be torn in half. Not even close. XKCD: the TED talk. If you use all three words, do they all have different meanings, all the same, or are two the same and one different? The comic's tagline describes it as "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". Come to discuss the comics and other work by Randall with other fans. And now you know.[13]Mt. You can read this article for an explanation, but the bottom line is that changing your speed by 11 km/s takes either a tank of fuel the size of a building or a tiny heat shield, and the tiny heat shield is a lot easier to carry. [9]People often ask why we don't use rockets to slow down, to avoid the need for a heat shield. 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." Apparently a "lot of things" not limited to atomic fusion, generation of plasma and a substantial atomic blast. xkcd what if, 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. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). If you climb up the pole far enough, Earth's gravity will take over and start pulling you down. Mt. Instead of sliding, you'll have to climb. 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. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). 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! The illustrated book, released on September 2, answers reader-submitted questions about imaginary scenarios that spark Munroe’s interest. Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth, measured from sea level. That thing is definitely a safety hazard.). Unfortunately for you, space is big, so "pretty close" is still a long way. What if I'm making a mistake? It's not a big difference,[3]You may occasionally see people get excited about the "supermoon," a full Moon that appears slightly larger because it happens at the time of the month when the Moon is closest to Earth. World-record pole climbers[4]Of course there's a world record for pole climbing. In my opinion, it's worth going outside and looking at the Moon whenever it's full, regardless of whether it's super or not. More details. By Randall Munroe. 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. The end of the pole near the Moon would be pulled toward the Moon by the Moon's gravity, and the rest of it would be pulled back down to the Earth by the Earth's gravity. Join. However, while the idea seems silly, in a sense it's sort of the principle behind both Project Orion and laser ablation propulsion. 139k. 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. For obvious reasons, you don't want to jump directly onto the ground while moving at Mach 1. That's how fast the top end of our hypothetical fire pole will be traveling. People often say, "It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end." from $19.00 Tech Support. What If? This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. Then, as the air carries you away and you fall toward the Earth, you can open your parachute. From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask. 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. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions would eventually be released in September that year. 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? This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. A serious scientific answer to an absurd hypothetical, and the first chapter of Randall Munroe's upcoming book. 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. The answer isn't Chimborazo or Everest. You can read this article for an explanation, but the bottom line is that changing your speed by 11 km/s takes either a tank of fuel the size of a building or a tiny heat shield, and the tiny heat shield is a lot easier to carry. Hopefully you brought some kind of safety line so you can recover if that happens. 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. xkcd, sometimes styled XKCD, is a webcomic created in 2005 by American author Randall Munroe. At best, you'll be flung away and plummet to your death. 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. Unfortunately for you, the Earth is also spinning,[11]I mean, unfortunately in this specific context. Even though the end of the pole is moving slowly relative to the Earth as a whole, it's moving very fast relative to the surface. For aerodynamic reasons, this gear should probably make it look like you're wearing a very fast airplane. We need explanations for comics, characters, themes and everything in between.If it is referenced in an xkcd web comic, it should be here.. (When you're done, remember to remove the fire pole. 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." [‡ 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". This is tricky to calculate, because the Moon's ground speed varies over time in a complicated way. {{Title text: I once made an anniversary card for my then-girlfriend with this layout. However, the Moon's orbit is also tilted, and this tilt rotates on an 18.9-year cycle. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). You're about to drop into some extremely strong winds. More details.. Then, at last, you can drift safely to the ground, having traveled from the Moon to the Earth completely under your own muscle power. I have a lot of mountain facts. 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. As you approach the Earth and the pull of its gravity increases, you'll start to speed up quite a bit. Thanks to heat shields, slowing down is much easier than speeding up—which requires the aforementioned giant fuel tank. 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? XKCD's Randall Munroe is publishing a book of science explainers! What if this isn't everything it should be? In general, the fact that the Earth spins is very fortunate for you, and for the planet's overall habitability. /r/xkcd is the subreddit for the popular webcomic xkcd by Randall Munroe. from $19.00 Centrifuge. But really, the full Moon always looks surprisingly large and pretty when it's near the horizon, thanks to the Moon illusion. 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. When this happens, be careful—soon, you'll need to start worrying about going too fast. But let's ignore those problems! 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. > >| 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. Munroe states on the comic's website that the name of the comic is not an initialism, but "just a Sadly, no one's figured out a practical way to build a "reverse heat shield" rocket. Reddit has thousands of vibrant communities with people that share your interests. Thanks to heat shields, slowing down is, Yes, I know, orbits are conic sections which in the case of the Moon is. 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. The purpose of a "what-if" scenario is to consider what effects might be caused if some event or invention had come about. 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. The comic's tagline describes it as "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". 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. 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. 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. 154. from the swinging pole pulling you away from Earth. The Moon's orbit is tilted by about 5° relative to the Earth-Sun plane, while the Earth's axis is tilted by 23.5°. How long would it take to slide down from the Moon? What If? We're not selling it through the store, but you can order it … Top posts february 10th 2016 Top posts of february, 2016 Top posts 2016. United States - Audio | Blackstone Audio | September 2, 2014 available to order from: Downpour, Amazon, Barnes & Noble. Note: Anyone can view the Hangout live on YouTube (Friday, 9/12, 3:30pm PT), but only 4-6 xkcd readers will be selected using this form to participate and ask questions within the Hangout itself. every 29 days or so. Members. 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. He likes candlelight dinners and long walks on the beach. 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. How far into the periodic table could you get? Cayambe's southern slope also happens to be the highest point on Earth's surface directly on the Equator. 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 Moon doesn't always stay the same distance from Earth. from $19.00 Shark. 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. Get a constantly updating feed of breaking news, fun stories, pics, memes, and videos just for you. series, in which he answers … Would you be breaking any laws? Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors). At worst, your hands and the surface of the pole will both be converted into exciting new forms of matter, and then you'll be flung away and plummet to your death. and its surface moves a lot faster than 35 mph; at the Equator, it can reach over 1,000 miles per hour. [Books-a-million], Google Play, iBooks. Cory Doctorow 11:00 am Mon Jun 2, 2014 . Apply for a chance to participate in the Hangout by Monday, August 25. Another problem with this plan. Regardless of where you come down, you'll need to contend with supersonic winds, so you should wear lots of protective gear. Try to avoid the tropical jet stream, an upper-level air current which blows in the same direction the Earth rotates. Chimborazo in Ecuador, due to the fact that the planet bulges out at the equator. On the Moon, gravity is much weaker, so it will probably be easier to climb. I'm not even sure how I feel 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. 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. entries into a book. You may occasionally see people get excited about the ", As usual, anyone arguing about "centrifugal" versus "centripetal" force will. Make sure you're tightly attached to the pole, since the wind and various shockwaves will be violently battering and jolting you around. $19.00 Linux Cheat Shirt. You could use it as the basis for a statistics Ph.D. [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. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). Note: While you're flinging yourself along, be careful not to drift out of reach of the pole. This is why anything that falls into the Earth hits the atmosphere fast enough to burn up. 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. Let's buy a little time by trying to figure it out anyway. It's actually a pentagon. Unfortunately, in this case, it's probably going to be both. : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is due out September 2. but it's enough that the bottom 50,000 km of your fire station pole would be squished against the Earth once a month. XKCD College-Style Shirt. Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe’s iconic webcomic. can climb at over a meter per second in championship competition. When the Moon's tilt is in the same direction as the Earth's, it stays 5° closer to the Equator than the Sun, and when it's in the opposite direction, it reaches more extreme latitudes. 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. Should we have a category for it? What If? |<
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