Comments on: xkcd asks, "what if…?"

By: Infinite123Lifer

Infinite123Lifer — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 06:28:34 +0000

Thanks Joseph G. I put myself on the bench for awhile

By: DennyMo

DennyMo — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 16:21:08 +0000

The baseball write-up more than anything else I’ve read explains why the Enterprise needs a deflector array.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 08:47:05 +0000

@49 starsrift: This actually raises an intriguing question for me – assuming otherwise current technology except in propulsion, would the ISM prevent 0.99c travel? If not, what altitude from the sun could you travel at 0.99c without being shredded by the solar wind / heliosphere?
And more interestingly, if the first question has a negative answer, what /would/ be a safe speed to travel at through the ISM?

That is indeed an interesting question. The average density of the ISM is known, so I’m sure someone with more math acumen than I could throw together a back-of-the-envelope calculation to determine how much interstellar hydrogen you’d encounter per second, then get the relativistic kinetic energy of that mass at your chosen speed to get the energy flux your ship would be dealing with.
Alas, I suck at math, so someone else will have to do it

If anyone wants to take a crack at it, a good place to start is this table from teh Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_medium#Interstellar_matter

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 08:30:24 +0000

That “What if” blog idea is pure, distilled awesome.
The only thing I’d add is the actual energy of the baseball in question, which I was immediately curious about. At first I couldn’t believe that even a relativistic fastball could wreak quite that much havoc, so I checked it out (thanks, Wolfram Alpha!) The kinetic energy of a 145 gram baseball traveling at .9 C is 1.69×10^16 joules, equal to just a hair over 4 megatons of TNT. That’s one helluva brushback!

By: CR

CR — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 04:23:22 +0000

I liked the articles and the illustrations. Fun, in a skewed way.

By the way, did anyone notice the ‘What if?’ masthead art of a T-Rex being fed to a Sarlaac? Got me to wonder just what would happen if that actually happened…

By: Dustin J

Dustin J — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 05:07:26 +0000

I love that the two castmembers of Firefly who survive are the two whose characters were killed off in the movie “Serenity.”

By: Infinite123Lifer

Infinite123Lifer — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 01:51:57 +0000

And if Superman were to throw a baseball that fast I think Superman himself would have to be moving close to c and just might obliterate some of the surrounding Earth with his wind up . . . Thus obliterating the baseball before it is ever to be thrown.

Iam pretty sure just on instinct here that at .9c for 1 second the baseball would be well into space given the ball could take the stressors.

By: Infinite123Lifer

Infinite123Lifer — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 01:08:19 +0000

That should be king and queen. And , personally I don’t know if the ball stands to disintegrate even on the atomic level directly out of Supermans hand, but Iam leaning that way. :-

Btw . . . whose side is Time on . ? . this close to the known ultimate speed limit: c . . . and how could Time thus collaborate with Gravity within the Higgs Field and the other forces of the Universe to hypothetically hold Supermans greatest pitch in one piece as a measurable mass for 1 second . ? . I doubt it as cool as it sounds mike burkhart
Superman will beat up any superhero . . . just wanted to add that

By: Infinite123Lifer

Infinite123Lifer — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 00:35:55 +0000

A ball thrown by Superman into space at .9c would drastically effect the way the baseball moves through the different mediums such as air . . . etc. I think.
However what if gravity could impose such pressure on the atoms of the baseball that they would not deteriote or fuse with the elements in the air (all moving through the higgs) at what has already been mentioned. That first law of motion is going to encounter all types of effects and things in the way. Unless, possibly gravity and charge work together like king and quenn or because Superman is just that awesome.

By: realta fuar

realta fuar — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 00:15:16 +0000

@Space Cadet Small nit to pick: pitchers in fastpitch softball do NOT throw faster than in baseball. It may appear that way bc the pitcher is MUCH closer to the batter than in baseball: 40 feet in h.s. and 43 feet in college. Thus in fastpitch softball the ball arrives at roughly the same time a good major league fastball would. This (and the underhand motion) is why major league hitters are so often embarrassed by going against top flight female softball pitchers. A good fastball in women’s softball may go around 70 mph while a REALLY good fastball in MLB can break 100 mph but even minor league pitchers routinely throw 92-95 mph.