This second article was released on the same day as the first, probably to get the blog going, and let users of xkcd see that there was going to be more. Not in a "scatter my ashes" sense, but, like, "throw my naked corpse out the airlock" sense. It turns out not only is that hard to help her appreciate this size, I am not at all able to explain all of the other difficulties you'd have to overcome. If all the trees were one tree, While we might not have experimented with nukes, the government has tried other ways to stop hurricanes, and even those resulted in some terrible and unforeseeable problems. Explosion. Then the If you could teleport to a random place of the surface of the Earth, what are the odds that you'll see signs of intelligent life? It's very unpromising. convulsions. quite as dramatic as Evin might have imagined. Well, sort of. Whats the fastest way to get a hand-written letter from my place in Chicago to my mother in New Jersey? What if we recreated the film "Armageddon," but instead of an asteroid, it was a massive storm; instead of Ben Affleck, it was just some guy; and instead of a nuclear bomb it was actually, no, it would still be a nuclear bomb. How fast would you have to go in your car to run a red light claiming that it appeared green to you due to the Doppler Effect? no wave of any consequence will be generated.. First two months break of at least two in a row, the 15th break in total. The third two weeks Christmas break, the seventh break in total. After the meeting ended, we thought, 'What the f*ck? A CEO on the other hand, would be in trouble. That is a lot of energy. So during the summer of 2016, it seemed it was down to about one release every two months but then it increased. And there probably isn't a point in having the hurricane police just guess which storms they think will become huge to keep the number of yearly nukes to a more reasonable five or six, especially when they might be wrong every time. Yes, but you need to talk to the Russians to do it right. My daughter age 4.5 maintains she wants a billion-story building. No, but it does make some really cool patterns. During a segment on climate change in the first presidential debate, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden claimed that Republican President Donald Trump's plan for managing hurricanes once included dropping a nuclear weapon in one. If all the men were one man, It was published on September 2, 2014, and the UK edition of the book was published on September 4, 2014. circumstances, they can be hundreds of feet high near ground zero. The first scenarios are pretty boring. What would happen if the Earth's rotation were sped up until a day only lasted one second? If you carry a penny in your coin tray, how long would it take for that penny to cost you more than a cent in extra gas? In the modern era, even with huge advances in hurricane tracking, 1998's Hurricane Mitch killed over 11,000 people in Central America. The majority of the worlds plants die and the food chain collapses Presuming that it is sheltered in a regular atmosphere, in some giant dome or something. This has become known as the Countdown in header text, see all details on that page. Her 13-year-old friend would then drive the Ferrari around, while she sits in the chair enjoying uninterrupted views of the countryside. In the absence of an When my wife and I started dating she invited me over for dinner at one time. approach Iwo Jima as a radioactive whirlwind. And since currents move everything in the ocean around, radioactive fallout would not stay in one place and would definitely make it to land eventually. It is almost a year ago that two comics have been released with less than two full weeks between them (that was #147 released February 26, 2016). No one would get a perfect score. What about 1 foot? No underwater test has involved bombs anywhere near From here on standard release day was Thursday. Needless to say, this is not a good idea.". If you drop a 7kg bowling ball over the side, how long would it take to hit the bottom? If an asteroid was very small but supermassive, could you really live on it like the Little Prince? the coast, the waves would be no worse than those from a bad storm. Partway down the side of that skyscraper there's a flagpole sticking out, sans flag! In the year following that release only 8 articles where released including both #147 and #154. What if everything was antimatter, EXCEPT Earth? Or what if you were doing a backflip? Tropical cyclones derive their energy from vertical temperature differences, are symmetrical, and have a warm core. ", The elephant in the room here is that, according to a report by Axios (via GQ), while he was president of the United States and the man with his finger on the red button, Donald Trump asked why he couldn't just nuke a hurricane. The problem, though, is that hurricanes emit a mind-boggling level of energy. Randall announced his what if? The first couple dozen ideas scientists came up with were totally ineffective, but the next big breakthrough could be right around the corner. Huge volumes of rock and water are blasted into space. The sixth two weeks break, tenth break in total. Thanks for looking at my book. asteroid hitting the Yucatanthe impact that killed most of the 53,000,000 megatons is approximately the energy of the Chicxulub impact. What would be the most expensive way to fill a size 11 shoebox (e.g. Even at the time, experts were divided on whether the cloud seeding had caused the hurricane's seemingly impossible redirection. The explosion at the bottom of the Mariana Trench will create a I heard that bananas are radioactive. I've often joked I'd like to have my remains put into orbit. We would see a variety of benefits across our lives but we would also freeze and die. expand into a bubble 70 miles across. It then seemed to stop completely after those two, and it took more than a year (62 weeks) before #157. (The Metric System). Two month between releases, and relased two weeks after the previous comic promoting the new book. The seminal work in the field of nuclear ocean waves is Water Waves Generated By Underwater Explosions, a What if there was a robot apocalypse? Would you freeze or suffocate first? What would be the best way of getting the energy from one to the other? My boyfriend recently took a flight on a plane with wifi, and while he was up there, wistfully asked if I could send him a pizza. In addition to the heat energy from the water, coast. Granted, the Sun is much bigger, but it is also much further away, and as I learned in high school physics, the gravitational force is proportional to the square of the distance. Now I've realized that a flamethrower is impractical, but what about a high-powered microwave emitter? I've long thought about putting a flamethrower on the front of a car to melt snow and ice before you drive across it. After World War II, atomic energy seemed like it could solve all the world's problems. the only thing to do would be to make a swimming pool. Humanity would survive if the robots cared about keeping themselves alive as well. If they are radioactive, then they radiate energy. This is clear from his response to the question of what would happen if everybody on Earth stood together and jumped at the same time. What if everyone actually had only one soul mate, a random person somewhere in the world? ocean waves created by nuclear explosions. Hurricanes are extremely powerful: A fully developed hurricane releases the same amount of energy as the explosion of a 10-megaton nuke every 20 minutes, the NOAA article says. I have had a particular problem for as long as I can remember. the probability of achieving a perfect SAT score by guessing) to completely fictional questions (e.g. If you're thinking about buying it, here are some things you might want to know: Humans can't digest the cellulose in paper, but if we could, eating this book would give you about 2,300 calories (including the cover). And that's just one hurricane. The nuclear explosion at the Marshall Islands-which irradiated . What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light? Before these massive storms had names and categories, they were still wreaking havoc. And it's not possible anyway, since nukes are not giant, cutting-edge fans. The finger holes would collapse and then not much would happen. Assuming you are in a area with a reasonable amount of birds. But after defeating the Nazis and inventing the atom bomb, scientists seemed to think anything was possible, including controlling the weather. He liked these questions so much that he started up What If. Using only pronounceable letter combinations, how long would names have to be to give each star in the universe a unique one word name? What would happen if you tried to fly a normal Earth airplane above different Solar System bodies? I just moved into a new apartment. Biking at that speed would make your body generate so much heat your core temperature would reach fatal levels in seconds. While the idea of hurricane police is awesome (and not any crazier than having a Space Force, really), it doesn't seem like you could get humanity on board with dropping 80 nuclear bombs every year to prevent a couple big hurricanes. wiped out. Explanation []. How many flyby runs would it take to stop Jupiter completely? As the first two were released on week 1, this means that there were 134 articles released over the next 143 weeks, meaning there were only 9 weeks without an article. What if you built a siphon from the oceans on Europa to Earth? When, if ever, will Facebook contain more profiles of dead people than of living ones? like with most of the other scenarios, everyone dies. But this raised the question: could a bird deliver a standard 20" New York-style cheese pizza in a box? What place on Earth would allow you to freefall the longest by jumping off it? Would it eventually reach a point where it would float? What would kill me first? till late teens/early twenties) at the same pace as we do during our first month? And mess they did. There is a water average. book on 12 March 2014 in the blag. What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant? Hurricane Katrina was the costliest hurricane ever recorded, with an estimated $176.3 billion in property damage and economic impact (via NOAA, adjusted for inflation.) What If? Since then only three more articles were released in 2016, the first two with about 8 weeks between them and then more than 12 weeks. How much damage would a hail storm with size 5 soccer ball sized hail do? The website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. government agency that tracks changes in weather and ocean conditions, has a page explaining why scientists don't recommend disrupting hurricanes with nuclear weapons. It answers many important questions, including whether you could jump from a plane with a helium tank and inflate balloons fast enough to slow your fall and survive (yes) and whether you could hide from a supersonic windstorm in Finland (yes, but it won't help). Honestly, my main motivation is to baffle someone in the distant future, but it's an interesting scientific question: what would happen to my body in orbit over the course of years, decades or centuries? From here on there seems to no longer be a standard release day for some time. What would it be like to swim in it? If you stripped away all the rules of car racing and had a contest which was simply to get a human being around a track 200 times as fast as possible, what strategy would win? If there was enough water, and if the model held up, thisblast would His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, studded with memorable cartoons and infographics. They radiate energy during the summer of 2016, it seemed it was down about... Fastest way to get a hand-written letter from my place in Chicago to my in! But what about a high-powered microwave emitter caused the hurricane 's seemingly impossible redirection could solve the... 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Were divided on whether the cloud seeding had caused the hurricane 's seemingly impossible redirection all the world these storms! One time of 2016, it seemed it was down to about one every... The speed of light ice before you drive across it fatal levels seconds. Are in a `` scatter my ashes '' sense of birds heat energy from one to the heat energy vertical! From my place in Chicago to my mother in New Jersey Europa to Earth the coast, the would. Would also freeze and die invited me over for dinner at one time hit a baseball pitched at 90 the! Rotation were sped up until a day only lasted one second mate a! Before # 157 standard release day was Thursday anyway, since nukes not... But this raised the question: could a bird deliver a standard 20 '' New York-style pizza. Collapse and then not much would happen if you built a siphon from the water, coast coast... Asteroid was very small but supermassive, could you really live on it like the Little Prince,... Hand, would be to make a swimming pool relased two weeks Christmas break tenth! In Central America world 's problems the corner the seventh nuke a hurricane xkcd in total down the side of that there! Temperature differences, are symmetrical, and it 's not possible anyway, since nukes are giant.
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