PF Random Thoughts

turbo

We live in a very backward country, Borek. The farther you delve into the Bible-belt, the worse it gets. Beauty may only be skin-deep, but ignorance and intolerance goes right to the bone.

OmCheeto

I will let you know after I become a trillionaire, and after watching your video, which I don't have time for at the moment, as I'm late for work.

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But I'm sure Bora Bora will be mentioned somewhere in my answer.

Jimmy Snyder

G20 officials will disregard key parts of a currency statement issued this week by the Group of Seven powers, citing threats issuing from the Gang of Four. Meanwhile, in bilateral talks with the Trilateral Commission, they said they would not buckle under pressure from the Pentagon. China's suggestion to follow the eightfold path was also ignored in favor of Wilson's 14 point plan. Calls for unification went unanswered.

Borg

That sounds tense.

Jimmy Snyder

It was, but right now it looks better going forward.

Jimmy Snyder

As you know, there is a meteor about 45 meters in diameter scheduled to come within about 17000 miles of earth. This is not to be confused with an unscheduled meteor that recently came within 0 miles of earth. Anyway, the one I'm talking about is traveling at 17000 miles per hour so if we're planning a meteor chat, we'd better get started soon. An hour from now will be too late. As you also know, earth's escape speed (oops, I almost said velocity) is 25000 miles per hour. Perhaps someone else will check my math, but near as I can tell

[tex]17,000 < 25,000[/tex]

and that's for all values of delta, greater or smaller than epsilon. Is this meteor going to be in some kind of elongated orbit around the earth?

nitsuj

Would the escape speed be different 17,000 miles out ? I just looked up the formula which I cannot read, but I do recognize a big letter g, which I assume is for a gravity value.

zoobyshoe

The other day I saw a guy with a jackrabbit on a leash. Jackrabbits are wild; not a domesticated variety of rabbit, so it was unusual. I suppose he must have found it as a baby.

turbo

I was delving into the "misery and tragedy" of the cruise-ship story earlier, and came across a complaint by a 12 year-old girl that they had to eat cold sandwiches. I suggest that we ship her over-entitled self to a poor country in sub-Saharan Africa so she can experience the looks of pity from the starving children watching her eat cold sandwiches.

Borg

Still, after watching Carnival have two engine fires in a few years span, I will have to think twice about traveling with them again. Can you imagine what would have happened if this had occurred in the middle of a transatlantic cruise? Coincidentally, my wife and I cruised on the Splendor on one of its first voyages in 2008 before it had its engine fire in 2010. We enjoyed the cruise and had a great time. However, I'm really beginning to wonder what's going on in the engine rooms of these ships.

Definitely not having any sympathy over sandwich-gate though...

collinsmark

Jimmy has a rare sense of humor that can leave one laughing, while also scratching one's head. (His recent post in the sharing of IQs thread left me rolling around on the floor laughing for several minutes.) This is one of these humor examples.

(While Jimmy mentioned the 17,000 mi figure, and subtly threw in reference to a single hour, there's actually no real connection between those two figures and 17,000 mi/hour. Cleverly leaving off the units makes it even more humorous.)

(Yes, G is Newton's gravitational constant [not to be confused with lower-case g, which is typically the gravitational acceleration at the surface of the Earth].)

[Edit: But to answer your question more directly: The radius of the Earth is only about 4000 miles. So starting at a distance of 17,000 mi would definitely have an influence on the necessary escape speed, yes, compared to the escape speed at the surface.]

Borg

Post number 2 in this thread is my all-time favorite. Post #3 shows another Jimmy victim who never sees it coming.

AlephZero

Think positive. With no engines in the middle of a big ocean, they would find it hard to do this.



(Another Carnival Group company...)

Borg

True dat. BTW, I forgot to mention that our first cruise was on the Carnival Tropicale in 1998 or 99. It had an engine fire a few months later also... We've been on three Carnival ships. Best wishes Carnival Destiny. We're glad that you didn't crash or burn...

Jimmy Snyder

I don't see it that way. In this case, nitsuj happens to be correct, 25K mph is the speed at the surface of the earth, 17K miles up the escape velocity is less. The OP in the IQ thread sent me a PM saying "Thank you Jimmy". But he misspelled Thank and there's some filter that prevents me from knowing exactly how he did spell it.

HeLiXe

i see it that way as I too have fell victim

Borg

Thank you again Jimmy.

You're in good company and certainly not alone.