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Earth-Moon Fire Pole

what-if.xkcd.com

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Re: Earth-Moon Fire Pole

#61

Post by sp332 »

ngvrnd wrote: post #55
probably_wrong wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess the answer would be similar to the toaster-in-fridge question[1] from a previous what-if, namely: yes, it would melt. [1] https://what-if.xkcd.com/155/

but what if microwaves don't heat solid ice at all, they heat the water that forms on the ice because the microwave is at room temperature? google "how to melt glass in a microwave".

That's very cool. But if you had a standard 1000W microwave, heat from the electronics would probably get the job done eventually.

Re: Earth-Moon Fire Pole

#62

Post by gus_massa »

yosito wrote: post #7

I would imagine that what the five year old who asked wanted was an intuitive sense of how far away the moon is. My answer would have been far less interesting. I would assume a reasonable rate at which a child slides down a pole, say 1 meter per second, multiplied by roughly 384,000km from the moon to Earth, and it would take a little over 12 years.

Perhaps this could has been in the first paragraph, as an easy comparison (1m/s looks too small). And then add the details of the variation of the Earth gravity with the distance and then the part about the gravity of the Moon, and then in the third paragraph get to the complete technical explanation.

Anyway, sending a question to "What If?" is like sending a question to Mythbusters. You never get an easy answer, but an overthinked answer that involves some destruction and explosions.

Re: Earth-Moon Fire Pole

#63

Post by yosito »

jameshart wrote: post #19
yosito wrote: post #7

I would imagine that what the five year old who asked wanted was an intuitive sense of how far away the moon is. My answer would have been far less interesting. I would assume a reasonable rate at which a child slides down a pole, say 1 meter per second, multiplied by roughly 384,000km from the moon to Earth, and it would take a little over 12 years.

Let me guess - your favorite map projection is Goode Homolosine. You like easy solutions. You think we wouldn't have so many problems if we'd just elect normal people to Congress instead of Politicians. You think airlines should just buy food from the restaurants near the gates and serve that on board. You change your car's oil, but secretly wonder if you really need to.

ಠ_ಠ

Re: Earth-Moon Fire Pole

#64

Post by [deleted] »

ngvrnd wrote: post #53

Hey Randall! If you put a microwave in a sub-zero walk-in fridge, and after the device had reached equilibrium with ambient conditions, you connected the microwave to mains power, then put a chunk of ice in the microwave and turned it on at full power, would the ice ever melt?

[deleted]

Re: Earth-Moon Fire Pole

#65

Post by arghwhat »

laumars wrote: post #36
amelius wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> such as the moons surface not being geostationary to any point on the Earth. The pole would also solve that problem ...

...not without tearing the moon apart in the process. At which point you have much bigger issues (as well as no need for a pole in the first place). But given you're just making absurd "just do X" style statements I'm sure you'll reply with some remark about gluing the moon back together or wrapping it in clingfilm before you insert the pole to strengthen it's integrity.

Glue and clingfilm? Don't be silly.

The solution is obviously attaching rockets to the moon to accelerate it first.

Re: Earth-Moon Fire Pole

#68

Post by rimunroe »

archagon wrote: post #66

I wonder how long these things take to math out. Is there a lot of preliminary research involved?

The "mathing it out" takes about as long as he has before he needs to actually start writing and putting the post together. The problems can involve a lot of research since there's basically no end to how far you can take a given question. The whole thing usually takes less than a week of on and off work.

Re: Earth-Moon Fire Pole

#69

Post by HopDavid »

There has actually been a lunar elevator proposed, the most massive part lying at Earth Moon Lagrange 1. In my opinion, not practical. I took a look using Xylon: http://hopsblog-hop.blogspot.com/2016/04/liftport-lunar-teth...

For the numbers I used a safety factor of 1. The slightest nick or scratch would cause a break. Safety factor of 3 is more sensible.

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