The discussion centers around a hypothetical scenario involving a pole with a length equal to the Earth's circumference (24,901.55 miles) placed vertically on flat land. Participants explore three main possibilities: the pole wraps around the Earth, it juts out into space, or it snaps due to material limitations. The consensus leans towards the pole wrapping around the Earth due to the shallow curvature of the planet, although the feasibility of such a pole existing in reality is questioned, particularly regarding material properties and rigidity.
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Well OK. I guess the same thing could be said about the Queen Mary. A slight touch sets it moving imperceptibly?diazona said:F = ma, I say - a slight touch (F) would produce a slight acceleration (a). So it would do something, even if the motion would be so small you couldn't measure it.
haloshade said:An other way I thought about looking at this thought experiment is if the pole was infinitely long. Would the pole keep on warping around the Earth? Or will it warp until ends meet (well sorta) and the equal force from each side would cancel any other warping and the rest of the extent will keep on jutting out into space?
Just something I thought would be interesting to add to this already interesting thought experiment.
Edit: Assume that the infinite pole is behaves the same way as the already finite pole.
DaveC426913 said:Uh, you lost me. An infinitely-long pole would form a helix of infinite width. I don't see where you're going with this.