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is a blog by Randall Munroe, the creator of the Stick-Figure Comic xkcd. Then, at last, you can drift safely to the ground, having traveled from the Moon to the Earth completely under your own muscle power. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. More details. The Moon doesn't always stay the same distance from Earth. Unfortunately for you, space is big, so "pretty close" is still a long way. 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. from $19.00 Centrifuge. What If? 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? Thanks to heat shields, slowing down is much easier than speeding up—which requires the aforementioned giant fuel tank. The World Out now and coming soon from publishers worldwide. I have a lot of mountain facts. Apparently a "lot of things" not limited to atomic fusion, generation of plasma and a substantial atomic blast. The Moon's ground speed varies pretty regularly, making a kind of sine wave. The comic's tagline describes it as "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". For one, someone at NASA would probably yell at us. The comic's tagline describes it as "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". and its surface moves a lot faster than 35 mph; at the Equator, it can reach over 1,000 miles per hour. However, the Moon's orbit is also tilted, and this tilt rotates on an 18.9-year cycle. 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." 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. 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. Another problem with this plan. 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? : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is due out September 2. (EVIL) 0.7; Author: Stewart Shovlin Created Date: 3/22/2016 2:30:23 PM 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. It's actually a pentagon. By Randall Munroe. Language | Publisher | Pub Date; United States | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | September 2, 2014 available to order from: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indie Bound, BAM! 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. [‡ 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". United States - Audio | Blackstone Audio | September 2, 2014 available to order from: Downpour, Amazon, Barnes & Noble. If you use all three words, do they all have different meanings, all the same, or are two the same and one different? : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is out now in the US, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt! from $19.00 Tech Support. But really, the full Moon always looks surprisingly large and pretty when it's near the horizon, thanks to the Moon illusion. [17]If it helps, people have survived supersonic ejections before—and even a supersonic aircraft disintegration—so there's hope. People can climb poles pretty fast. We got the chance to chat with Munroe last year, before the release of his previous book, “What If?” Randall Munroe, the guy behind Internet sensation … 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? Its orbital speed also changes depending on whether it's at the close or far point in its orbit. For Want of a Nail is a what-if … It's common knowledge that Mt. I mean, unfortunately in this specific context. The answer isn't Chimborazo or Everest. [[A large black circle with white bubbles inside it, filled with hearts, question marks, and stick figure couples]] 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. series, in which he answers … There's one other cycle we can take into account to really nail down the Moon's ground speed. More details. You're about to drop into some extremely strong winds. He likes candlelight dinners and long walks on the beach. 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. 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. 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. Then, as the air carries you away and you fall toward the Earth, you can open your parachute. 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. 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. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). Online. Thanks to heat shields, slowing down is, Yes, I know, orbits are conic sections which in the case of the Moon is. At some point, to reach the ground, you're going to have to let go of the pole. 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. More details. Its orbit takes it closer and farther away. 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. 154. [1]For one, someone at NASA would probably yell at us. 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. You could use it as the basis for a statistics Ph.D. 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. This leads to a roughly sine-wave shaped ground speed: Ok, fine. > >| This is why anything that falls into the Earth hits the atmosphere fast enough to burn up. The pole would be torn in half. Members. What If? In general, the fact that the Earth spins is very fortunate for you, and for the planet's overall habitability. Here's Randall Munroe's TED talk about his What If? Even if you climb at better-than-world-record speed, it will still take you several years to get to the L1 crossover point. 139k. For obvious reasons, you don't want to jump directly onto the ground while moving at Mach 1. Prev; Earth-Moon Fire Pole. Hopefully you brought some kind of safety line so you can recover if that happens. ~AgentMuffin. Randall has a Twitter feed, @whatifnumbers, of numbers he comes up … What If? This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. Should we have a category for it? [5]Of course there are championship competitions. Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth, measured from sea level. The purpose of a "what-if" scenario is to consider what effects might be caused if some event or invention had come about. : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions would eventually be released in September that year. As you approach the Earth and the pull of its gravity increases, you'll start to speed up quite a bit. If you stood next to the end of the pole on the Moon, a problem would become clear right away: You have to slide up the pole, and that's not how sliding works. from $19.00 Shark. What If? from $19.00 Compiling. 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. (For more on this, see this What If question).Heat shields only work for slowing down; if there were a way to use the same heat shield mechanism to speed up, space travel would get a lot easier. 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. 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. 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. Assuming you descend slowly and enter the atmosphere in a controlled manner, you'll soon encounter your next problem: Your pole isn't moving at the same speed as the Earth. from $19.00 Woodpecker. Instead of sliding, you'll have to climb. From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask. I have a lot of mountain facts. And now you know.​[13]Mt. 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. 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. (When you're done, remember to remove the fire pole. 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. XKCD's Randall Munroe is publishing a book of science explainers! For aerodynamic reasons, this gear should probably make it look like you're wearing a very fast airplane. Chimborazo in Ecuador, due to the fact that the planet bulges out at the equator. In his new book, What If? 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 work is licensed under a What if this isn't everything it should be? A few of my favorites: * What happens when a Baseball is pitched at 90% of the speed of light? 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. If you’re willing to spend $1,700, you could actually buy a ready-made set of the elements online. 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. 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. 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. That thing is definitely a safety hazard.). 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. Note: While you're flinging yourself along, be careful not to drift out of reach of the pole. 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. from $19.00 QR Code. We need explanations for comics, characters, themes and everything in between.If it is referenced in an xkcd web comic, it should be here.. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). A serious scientific answer to an absurd hypothetical, and the first chapter of Randall Munroe's upcoming book. [Books-a-million], Google Play, iBooks. At best, you'll be flung away and plummet to your death. Passionate about something niche? On the other hand, you'll have to wear a spacesuit, so that will probably slow you down a little. Alternatively, find out what’s trending across all of Reddit on r/popular. 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°. but it's enough that the bottom 50,000 km of your fire station pole would be squished against the Earth once a month. Try to avoid the tropical jet stream, an upper-level air current which blows in the same direction the Earth rotates. Do you make a distinction between shallots, scallops, and scallions? 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. Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe’s iconic webcomic. 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. Come to discuss the comics and other work by Randall with other fans. Join. XKCD College-Style Shirt. [15]For aerodynamic reasons, this gear should probably make it look like you're wearing a very fast airplane. entries into a book. Apply for a chance to participate in the Hangout by Monday, August 25. That's how fast the top end of our hypothetical fire pole will be traveling. xkcd, sometimes styled XKCD, is a webcomic created in 2005 by American author Randall Munroe. How long would it take to slide down from the Moon? XKCD: the TED talk. 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. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). Let's buy a little time by trying to figure it out anyway. 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. |<

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