Comments on: Sonic Boom

By: ChattaStarhawk

ChattaStarhawk — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 01:59:10 +0000

While doing yet another read through, I found one MORE factor that no-one has considered. When we look at the Sun, we’re seeing it where it was a little over 8 minutes ago; therefore, to throw the CCM into the Sun with a transit time of 24 minutes you have to aim it at where the Sun will be in 32 minutes (+/- a minute or two) from its current perceived location.

It’s a standard space travel problem.

By: bmonk

bmonk — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:04:04 +0000

Didn’t they develop “Space Opera” precisely to avoid such messy considerations?

If you want to get from here to there in a few hours, or days, just do it. No need to go into all sorts of messy calculations.

IIRC, the original Star Trek series had lots of these problems. To finish the “Five year mission” using the rule for “warp speed” (cube of the warp number times the speed of light) would take something like at least a century. Or the Romulan “sub-light” Warbird crossing the Neutral Zone must be going at relativistic speeds–or be on it’s way at least a year.

By: bmonk

bmonk — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:47:26 +0000

I had these thoughts too. And, first, minimum delta-v to escape a gravity well is gonna make a long trip to the other end.

Heinlein used that fact in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Mike can throw large containers at Earth and get them to hit where he wants–good as nuclear bombs, without the residual radiation and fallout. Problem is that he can’t throw to many in a given time. So he throws the first ones slower, so that they crawl over the gravity hump, and the later ones are faster. Result: lots of them arrive very quickly. Chyenne Mountain is hit often enough that “the mountain really isn’t there anymore”, and there are plenty of others fired at a grid.

By: bmonk

bmonk — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:35:08 +0000

In the _Belgariad_, when Garion is learning to use telekinetic magic, he has to learn not only to push against the object being moved but to brace himself against a wide area of earth. The first time he tried to lift a boulder up he didn’t do this, and ended up sunk to his chin in the ground. . . .

By: bmonk

bmonk — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 22:14:53 +0000

OTOH, it IS pretty small, and the sun is a plasma, so it might not affect things too badly.

More, it might take a few more than 24 minutes to get there, assuming it’s moving only 600-(say) 2500 mph.

By: JustaPhilosopher

JustaPhilosopher — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:15:05 +0000

To Be Honest, I read half way through, saw alot of repeats, and didn’t read the rest. Plenty have already averted the whole “THIS IS BS!” claims, but I just want to repeat a few and add my own.
Hodgson’s Law (use ctrl + F if you hadn’t read it yet)
“Bud pulled the number out her ass” (as per our brilliant creator, Paul Taylor (And I dunno if he’s used that before, but with the rhyming, I say that’s a nice title, and I want credit should he decide to use it! ;p (J/K))) (Hey, I knew how many parentheses I used!)
She possibly used a version of “Poit-Power” to make things be all better. Especially after she put in all that sod, etc. in the backyard. She’d NOT want to turn it into a crater, one would think.
Perhaps there is some math wrong here on how much mass is really in that ‘lump,’ how much time it takes to travel to the sun (as the 24 minute number may or may not be accurate), how fast it may or may not have been going (assumedly above Mach 1 given the depiction in the comic), the mass of Bud in that form, etc. Bud is part of the Chimera, yadda yadda, so she can transform, seemingly altering her mass and momentum and etc… which leads back to “It’s Super Natural!” (Which leads back to it REALLY IS SCIENCE! just… really advanced science… *shrugs*)
Part of the above stated point, related to “Why is there no crater?!”, Bud might simply be able to absorb the force she’s putting into that lump.
As for the trail left behind by the lump, there may or may not be one. I would like to think there may not be enough scientific evidence to handle a simulation of something less than bullet sized, and potentially of a large or a small mass, exiting the earth’s atmosphere.
If it ACTUALLY reached the sun, one may never know. There is a good chance it missed and became a comet or some other orbiting mass. There’s the chance it’ll return. There’s the chance that it colliding with something else, say, the moon, would potentially annihilate it (along with part of the object it collided with).

Anyway, I think it amazing so much discussion is given to science even on such a topic as this. It may also be a bad sign that so many people are so scientifically serious over a webcomic.

So, I think I’ve effectively summed up (repeated in a semi-shortened form) ALOT of the discussion that’s gone on.

Also, I replied to the “It’s Outta Here” simply to have this near the top of the page. *shrugs* For all those “TLDR” people, now you can kinda NOT use that excuse (even if I did) because you just have to read this one post, not over half the page of comments.

By: arjay2813

arjay2813 — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:15:04 +0000

disaster averted what now!!!??
coffee.

By: MikeB

MikeB — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:52:47 +0000

Oh, hell, no! You did not just say that crushing it would increase it’s mass, did you? It’s mass (and therefore it’s weight) remains identical. It’s DENSITY would go up, yes, but not it’s weight.

The reason a supercompacted object might go through the floor is not because it’s heavier, it’s because the object has a smaller footprint. The reason a nail comes to a point is the same reason: to concentrate that force into a tiny area.

By: Linux Learner

Linux Learner — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:18:38 +0000

Why should we presume the Calendar machine is several tons? Atlantean materials science could well have suitable materials for it nowhere near as dense as, say, iron. Like a metal foam.

By: Linux Learner

Linux Learner — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:06:46 +0000

Yes, addiction: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/coffeeaddict/