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+--- Thread: New What-If (/showthread.php?tid=12892)
New What-If - LilFluff - 05-23-2018
Starting a new thread as I don't see the old one. I'm pretty sure there used to be a What-If thread, but my search attempts didn't find it.
Sometime in the last week a new What-If appeared on the xkcd site, Earth-Moon Fire Pole, which asks what would happen if you built a fire pole stretching from the surface of the Moon to the surface of the Earth. As many might expect the answer is, Very Bad Things. But has that ever stopped Randall from exploring a question? "But let's ignore those problems! 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? How long would it take to slide down from the Moon?" Yeah, didn't think that had ever stopped him from answering a question. :}
Other choice quotes:
"...and that's not how sliding works."
'Unfortunately for you, space is big, so "pretty close" is still a long way.'
"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 best of all the image alt text: "DO NOT USE THIS GRAPH FOR PLANNING PURPOSES. It's not that it isn't accurate, it's just that any kind of plan that involves this type of data is probably a bad one."
RE: New What-If - Bob Schroeck - 05-23-2018
"It's actually a pentagon."
RE: New What-If - robkelk - 05-23-2018
"In real life, we can't put a metal pole between the Earth and the Moon. [For one, someone at NASA would probably yell at us.]"
"DO NOT USE THIS GRAPH FOR PLANNING PURPOSES. It's not that it isn't accurate, it's just that any kind of plan that involves this type of data is probably a bad one."