How to illuminate the Moon, from the Earth!
Discussion
http://what-if.xkcd.com/13/
We had almost the same conversation in the office the other day, came up with the exact same suggestions too.
Maybe they were listening!
We had almost the same conversation in the office the other day, came up with the exact same suggestions too.
Maybe they were listening!
Edited by qube_TA on Thursday 4th October 13:47
Tim330 said:
Indeed, it's a brilliant website, I liked the energy from Yoda article, currently reading the robot apocalypse one! 
AshVX220 said:
Tim330 said:
Indeed, it's a brilliant website, I liked the energy from Yoda article, currently reading the robot apocalypse one! Mmmm.. I question this answer.
If the explanation above was correct, he could have just slowed down and the earth would have stopped reversing and started in the right direction again without his intervention?
Quote from website: said:
In the first Superman movie, Superman flies around Earth so fast that it begins turning in the opposite direction. This somehow turns back time. How much energy would someone flying around the Earth have to exert in order to reverse the Earth's rotation?
—Aidan Blake
Someone recently blew my mind by telling me I’d been misinterpreting that scene all my life. I like their take on it way better:
Superman wasn't exerting a force on the Earth. He was just flying fast enough to go back in time. (Faster than light, I guess? Comic book physics.) The Earth changed direction because we were watching time run backward as he traveled. It didn't actually have anything to do with the direction he was flying.
Now that I see it, it makes a lot more sense. I mean, as much sense as a red-cape-and-outside-underwear time traveler can make.
A discussion of the reversal of the Earth’s spin—and what that even means—will have to wait for another article.
I'm sure in the movie that after Superman had made earth contra-rotate, he'd had to fly the other way to make it start to rotate in the original direction again. This would indicate that his flight did have a direct effect on the earth.—Aidan Blake
Someone recently blew my mind by telling me I’d been misinterpreting that scene all my life. I like their take on it way better:
Superman wasn't exerting a force on the Earth. He was just flying fast enough to go back in time. (Faster than light, I guess? Comic book physics.) The Earth changed direction because we were watching time run backward as he traveled. It didn't actually have anything to do with the direction he was flying.
Now that I see it, it makes a lot more sense. I mean, as much sense as a red-cape-and-outside-underwear time traveler can make.
A discussion of the reversal of the Earth’s spin—and what that even means—will have to wait for another article.
If the explanation above was correct, he could have just slowed down and the earth would have stopped reversing and started in the right direction again without his intervention?
Piersman2 said:
I'm sure in the movie that after Superman had made earth contra-rotate, he'd had to fly the other way to make it start to rotate in the original direction again. This would indicate that his flight did have a direct effect on the earth.
If the explanation above was correct, he could have just slowed down and the earth would have stopped reversing and started in the right direction again without his intervention?
Perhaps he went back a bit too far and flew back to the future to the point he could save Lois?If the explanation above was correct, he could have just slowed down and the earth would have stopped reversing and started in the right direction again without his intervention?
Tim330 said:
This is one of my favourite things on the internet. Linked into the C&H thread a few weeks ago.I also like the one about "what if all the rain fell at once?"
prand said:
Perhaps he went back a bit too far and flew back to the future to the point he could save Lois?
I don't think it works like that - it's unlikely to be directional. If you travel back in time when you fly fast, then flying fast in another direction will simply mean he travels back further in time.
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