#Dirac live volume problems full#

At the distance of the Moon's orbit and the speed it's traveling, centrifugal force pushing away is exactly balanced by the Earth's gravity-which is why the Moon orbits there. from the swinging pole pulling you away from Earth.

When you're hanging onto the pole, there are three forces pulling on you: The Earth's gravity pulling you toward Earth, the Moon's gravity pulling you away from Earth, and centrifugal force As usual, anyone arguing about 'centrifugal' versus 'centripetal' force will be put in a centrifuge. If you climb up the pole far enough, Earth's gravity will take over and start pulling you down. On the other hand, you'll have to wear a spacesuit, so that will probably slow you down a little. On the Moon, gravity is much weaker, so it will probably be easier to climb. Of course there are championship competitions. can climb at over a meter per second in championship competition. World-record pole climbers Of course there's a world record for pole climbing. Instead of sliding, you'll have to climb. If you stood next to the end of the pole on the Moon, a problem would become clear right away: You have to slide up the pole, and that's not how sliding works. but it's enough that the bottom 50,000 km of your fire station pole would be squished against the Earth once a month.Р”В«ut 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? In my opinion, it's worth going outside and looking at the Moon whenever it's full, regardless of whether it's super or not.

#Dirac live volume problems full#

But really, the full Moon always looks surprisingly large and pretty when it's near the horizon, thanks to the Moon illusion. It's not a big difference, You may occasionally see people get excited about the ' supermoon,' a full Moon that appears slightly larger because it happens at the time of the month when the Moon is closest to Earth. Its orbit takes it closer and farther away. The Moon doesn't always stay the same distance from Earth. There's one more problem: Ok, that's a lie-there are, like, hundreds more problems.

The Earth's surface spins faster than the Moon goes around, so the end that dangled down to the Earth would break off if you tried to connect it to the ground: The pole would be torn in half.Р”Р„nother problem with this plan. The end of the pole near the Moon would be pulled toward the Moon by the Moon's gravity, and the rest of it would be pulled back down to the Earth by the Earth's gravity. For one, someone at NASA would probably yell at us. In real life, we can't put a metal pole between the Earth and the Moon. My son (5y) asked me today: If there were a kind of a fireman's pole from the Moon down to the Earth, how long would it take to slide all the way from the Moon to the Earth?Р”Р‡irst, let's get a few things out of the way: