What is the furthest you can throw something?

[AtomicJoe]

Nice simple question.

 

[DaveC426913]

Too simple.

Who? Me? Anyone?
Realistically? In principle? According to physics?
What? A cotton ball? A hand grenade? A fishing trawler?

 

[KingNothing]

If you throw it perpendicular to the Earth's surface, if you throw it at escape velocity, it will keep going forever.

If you throw something horizontally with enough force, it will eventually go into orbit and continue "falling" forever.

Personally, my best dwarf toss was around 15 feet.

 

[DaveC426913]

If you throw it perpendicular to the Earth's surface, if you throw it at escape velocity, it will keep going forever.

If you throw something horizontally with enough force, it will eventually go into orbit and continue "falling" forever.

Personally, my best dwarf toss was around 15 feet.

Excellent responses!

Reminds of a similar question:
Q: In good weather what is the farthest one can see?
A: 2 million light years.

 

[Pengwuino]

Depends on whether or not something is in the way.

 

[AtomicJoe]

If you throw it perpendicular to the Earth's surface, if you throw it at escape velocity, it will keep going forever.

If you throw something horizontally with enough force, it will eventually go into orbit and continue "falling" forever.

Personally, my best dwarf toss was around 15 feet.

Clearly you cannot throw something into orbit, that is proven by the fact it has never been done, so it is fairly reasonable to say that is impossible.

 

[DaveC426913]

Clearly you cannot throw something into orbit, that is proven by the fact it has never been done, so it is fairly reasonable to say that is impossible.

So, you agree your question needs clarification.

(BTW, something having never been done is definitely not proof that it can't be done.)

 

[AtomicJoe]

Too simple.

Who? Me? Anyone?
Realistically? In principle? According to physics?
What? A cotton ball? A hand grenade? A fishing trawler?

Well the question is as stated.
You can throw what you like, it is your choice, be it a hand grenade or a battleship.

 

[AtomicJoe]

Depends on whether or not something is in the way.

Assume you are throwing it on earth, if you want to throw it into a brick wall or a mountain side that's your problem, I doubt will win many throwing competitions!

 

[DaveC426913]

Well the question is as stated.
You can throw what you like, it is your choice, be it a hand grenade or a battleship.

This is one of those 'discuss amongst yourselves for my amusement' questions.

I don't want to play.

Your question is poorly formed.

 

[AtomicJoe]

So, you agree your question needs clarification.

(BTW, something having never been done is definitely not proof that it can't be done.)

I don't necessarily agree as I am unsure of the answer myself, so no I can't say I agree, I think the question is clear enough.

 

[AtomicJoe]

This is one of those 'discuss amongst yourselves for my amusement' questions.

I don't want to play.

Your question is poorly formed.

It is a serious question, it may bring some amusement, nothing wrong with that!

You don't have to play I am sure you can find easier questions.

If you get stuck I will try to help.

 

[AtomicJoe]

Depends on whether or not something is in the way.

You can assume nothing is in the way, apart from the atmosphere.

 

[Curl]

Nice simple question.

I threw a rock about 60-70 meters.

 

[AtomicJoe]

I threw a rock about 60-70 meters.

I don't think that is going to be the winning answer.

Nice try nonetheless.

 

[DaveC426913]

I don't think that is going to be the winning answer.

It does answer your question.

You asked what the farthest Curl can throw something. That sounds like a plausible answer.

Since you are happy to leave the question without further definition, then the first answer that meets the criteria is your answer.

 

[AtomicJoe]

It does answer your question.

You asked what the farthest Curl can throw something. That sounds like a plausible answer.

I didn't refer to Curl specifically, the 'you' refers 'any person'.

Example "What is the biggest number you can divide by 10 exactly?".

 

[DaveC426913]

I didn't refer to Curl specifically, the 'you' refers 'any person'.

And any person answered. Question answered.

 

[AtomicJoe]

And any person answered. Question answered.

Question was misunderstood apparently.

 

[rcgldr]

USA type football record, 306 feet <=> 93.2 meters.

USA type baseball record 445 feet <=> 135.6 meters

Aerobie flying ring world record 1,333 feet <=> 406.3 meters

 

[DaveC426913]

Question was misunderstood apparently.

Nope. Question was poorly formed. i.e. ambiguous.

Request for disambiguation netted an answer which is essentially 'you are free to come up with your own interpretation of the question'.

 

[AtomicJoe]

Nope. Question was poorly formed. i.e. ambiguous.

Request for disambiguation netted an answer which is essentially 'you are free to come up with your own interpretation of the question'.

Well if you look at it like that the answer with the longest distance wins.
Thus the answer for Curl is unlikely to 'win'.

Others are welcome to give their own answers.

 

[AtomicJoe]

USA type football record, 306 feet <=> 93.2 meters.

USA type baseball record 445 feet <=> 135.6 meters

Aerobie flying ring world record 1,333 feet <=> 406.3 meters

Is that the record for a human throw?

I am not sure the last one counts as a throw as such as it seems it received energy after the release.

You are not restricted to energy provided by a human body, but an answer for just that type of throw would be interesting.

 

[Oldfart]

If you throw something horizontally with enough force, it will eventually go into orbit and continue "falling" forever.

Last I heard, you can't throw (or fire from a gun) something into orbit. It either goes on forever, or falls back to Earth. You need a second burn to inject it into orbit after the intiial toss.

 

[AtomicJoe]

Last I heard, you can't throw (or fire from a gun) something into orbit. It either goes on forever, or falls back to Earth. You need a second burn to inject it into orbit after the intiial toss.

Well that is kind of what I am getting at.
I mean if it was possible to fire something into orbit then it seems fair to say that if it could be done it would have been done many many years ago.

After all it is a simpler principle than a rocket.

Actually I may have misread your answer, you seem to be saying you can fire something
outside the grasp of the Earth's gravity?

If so do you have any evidence to support that view, ie has it ever been done?

And if no why not?

 

[DaveC426913]

Well if you look at it like that the answer with the longest distance wins.

Thank you. That could be considered a disambiguation.


Only took 22 posts...

 

[AtomicJoe]

Thank you. That could be considered a disambiguation.Only took 22 posts...

There is no requirement to have a single answer.Anyway now the question is to your satisfaction perhaps you colud have a shot at answering it?

 

[DaveC426913]

Anyway now the question is to your satisfaction perhaps you colud have a shot at answering it?

I might be able to throw a baseball about 25 yards.

 

[AtomicJoe]

I might be able to throw a baseball about 25 yards.

OK so what do you think is the furthest anyone could manage, using any 'throwing' (or fireing) method on earth?

 

[AtomicJoe]

Sometimes it is easier to question the question than answer it!

 

[Curl]

Rail gun firing depleted uranium.

11km or so I think is how far they launch the projectile, not sure though. Google it.

 

[AtomicJoe]

Rail gun firing depleted uranium.

11km or so I think is how far they launch the projectile, not sure though. Google it.

Thanks for that, I was thinking about it my self and could see problems with a 'fired' projection as in a cannon or shot gun. There must also be an answer of an 'explosive' fired projectile too.



Also I think there must be some sort of optimum size for the projectile in a rail gun, just off the top of my head it would see the heavier the better although I do not know if the sheer size would become a problem.

Also I am not 100% sure how a rail gun works, so I guess I had better google it!

 

[flemmyd]

This guy claimed he could throw a potato 100 yards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Zabransky

unfortunately, the article wikipedia cites seems to be down.

 

[AtomicJoe]

20 km/s has been achieved with small projectiles explosively injected into the railgun. Although these speeds are possible theoretically, the heat generated from the propulsion of the object is enough to erode the rails rapidly. Such a railgun would require frequent replacement of the rails, or to use a heat resistant material that would be conductive enough to produce the same effect.

So there may be some physical limits on such a gun.

 

[DaveC426913]

OK so what do you think is the furthest anyone could manage, using any 'throwing' (or fireing) method on earth?

Wait. That's a completely different question.

There have been experiments done to see of guns can be used to fire projectiles into orbit.

 

[AtomicJoe]

The power supply must be able to deliver large currents, sustained and controlled over a useful amount of time. The most important gauge of power supply effectiveness is the energy it can deliver. As of December 2010, the greatest known energy used to propel a projectile from a railgun was 33 megajoules.[6] The most common forms of power supplies used in railguns are capacitors and compulsators which are slowly charged from other continuous energy sources.
The rails need to withstand enormous repulsive forces during shooting, and these forces will tend to push them apart and away from the projectile. As rail/projectile clearances increase, arcing develops, which causes rapid vaporization and extensive damage to the rail surfaces and the insulator surfaces. This limited some early research railguns to one shot per service interval.

 

[AtomicJoe]

Wait. That's a completely different question.

There have been experiments done to see of guns can be used to fire projectiles into orbit.

It's basically the same question.

What did the experiments conclude.

 

[DaveC426913]

It's basically the same question.

Next you're going to open it up to rockets...

 

[AtomicJoe]

Next you're going to open it up to rockets...

Rockets do not throw things, they carry a fuel/energy supply.

You can open it up to rockets if you like but I think it will be clear you can fire it a pretty much infinite distance.

 

[DaveC426913]

Rockets do not throw things, they carry a fuel/energy supply.

You can open it up to rockets if you like but I think it will be clear you can fire it a pretty much infinite distance.

Funny place to draw the line. It's as big a leap from firing to rocketing as it is from throwing to firing.

 

[AtomicJoe]

Funny place to draw the line. It's as big a leap from firing to rocketing as it is from throwing to firing.

Depends on how you define throw, a throw implies release of the propulsion system.

 

[AtomicJoe]

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/video-navys-mach-8-railgun-obliterates-record/

 

[Uglybb]

As dave said there is no difference between a rocket and a rail gun from a propulsion point.

If I took a high speed camera view of the projectile inside a rail gun muzzle and slowed it down many thousands of times and played it back to you the sequence would look like a mass be propelled from a stationary start to a terminal speed.

The difference between the two events is the time to achieve both one looks like an explosive event the other doesn't simply based on our concept of timespan of the two events.

Have a look at the myth busters where they tried to pan cake a car it is done with a rocket sled but it looks like and explosive event (http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-compact-compact-rocket-sled-angle-3.html)

And as per dave's reasoning you could argue the LHC throw protons at almost the speed of light ... define throw please.

 

[JaredJames]

Question was misunderstood apparently.

Question is extremely poorly written.

Now you're assuming there's no mountains in the way? Non-sense. They are a factor in throwing far, even if it's unrealistic.

Here is how poorly formed your question is, when asking Guinness World Records for the "farthest throw", here is what it spits out:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/Search/rdb.aspx?q=largest+OR+fastest+OR+smallest+OR+longest

Farthest throw of a playing card

Farthest throw of a person

Farthest washing machine throw - individual

Farthest hammer throw (female)

Farthest washing machine throw - pair

Farthest mobile phone throw by an individual (male)

Farthest light bulb throw

Farthest water balloon throw

Longest hammer throw on Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)

Longest peanut throw

You can 'refine' the search with "longest", "farthest", "furthest" etc to get even more results.

You could also look up the olympic records as well.

There are so many factors involved that it's non-sense.

Personal strength, size, the object, the weather, the Earth's surface etc, etc, etc.

 

[JaredJames]

Just to add, didn't Sadam try to build a massive gun that could fire projectiles hundreds of km?

I went to museum in England that had a section of it on display. Customs caught it before they were able to dispatch it.

 

[AlexChandler]

If you are in deep space, and you throw something in an appropriate direction, it will travel forevermore. Of course you will also travel indefinitely in the opposite direction.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Is this meant to be a biophysical question? I.e. what is the furthest a human being is capable of throwing X object based on the limitations of the human body?

Without disambiguation I can safely say things like this:
I once threw some saliva 200m (from the roof of a building)
I once threw a bullet at least 1km (from a gun)
I once threw in the towel (how far? all the way)
I once threw a hissy-fit (again, it went all the way)
I once threw my wallet into the future (it's still going)
I once threw a golf ball 200m (from the golf club)
I once threw a rock and hit France (from Paris)
I once threw a cricket ball 60m (I did)
I once threw someone miles away off guard (over the phone)

The question "what's the furthest you could throw something" needs to be defined so that we have
A something to measure by (baseball? feather?)
A method of throwing (why include guns?)
A place of throwing (of a bridge? mountain? ISS?)
Who are we talking bout (me? mankind?)

 

[AtomicJoe]

It's the furthest you can throw something on earth.
You can choose your object but I an interested in the one throw the furthest.

Hope that clear it up!

 

[AtomicJoe]

As dave said there is no difference between a rocket and a rail gun from a propulsion point.

If I took a high speed camera view of the projectile inside a rail gun muzzle and slowed it down many thousands of times and played it back to you the sequence would look like a mass be propelled from a stationary start to a terminal speed.

The difference between the two events is the time to achieve both one looks like an explosive event the other doesn't simply based on our concept of timespan of the two events.

Have a look at the myth busters where they tried to pan cake a car it is done with a rocket sled but it looks like and explosive event (http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-compact-compact-rocket-sled-angle-3.html)

And as per dave's reasoning you could argue the LHC throw protons at almost the speed of light ... define throw please.

No there is a clear and obvious difference between a rocket and a gun, a rocket carries it's own energy source or fuel supply a gun doesn't. A gun fires a projectile and relies on the kinetic energy of the projectile alone.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

It's the furthest you can throw something on earth.
You can choose your object but I an interested in the one throw the furthest.

Hope that clear it up!

In that case I can throw a weather balloon thousands of km around the Earth. Or I could build a Lofstrom loop and throw a car into orbit. Or I could throw my mate 8km off of Mt Everest.

This really does seem a bizarre topic to be asking about. Without specific qualifiers to an outrageously ambiguous question this doesn't belong in this forum.