Hello again,
I hope I can phrase this properly. Ok, so God gets bored one day and decides to play some cosmic baseball. If the earth was used as a baseball, and the bat was proportional in size and mass to the earth as a regular bat is to a regular ball, then how hard would God need to hit the earth in order to send it out of this galaxy?
In any case, what would happen in such a situation? Would anyone even feel anything at the moment of impact? Well… I suppose the people crushed by the bat would, but what about the people on the opposite side of the globe? Geez, I dont even know what questions to ask, because I can barely imagine all the variables.
So, as usual, any help is appreciated.
Your insane friend,
Auto
The Milky Way’s escape velocity is approximately 1000 m/s from where we are now. If your putative god hit the Earth hard enough to impart that kind of velocity to it, it would just vaporize.
I’m guessing that VAPORIZE is a bit of over statement.
But it seems likely that the pieces would be on the smallish side.
In the event that the earth didn’t actually come apart everything on the surface not connected very solidly (and a lot that was) would be left behind.
Oh, I don’t think it is. In case you missed my followup, the necessary velocity is 1000 km/s, not 1000 m/s. That’s about 60 times the impact velocity of a typical asteroid, like the one that killed off the dinosaurs. And we’re talking about an object that masses nearly 4 times what Earth does hitting at that speed. If anything, vaporize is an understatement.
You asked what strength is needed to hit it out of the galaxy. Someone better at physics will explain why the Earth is bye-bye, but I think it’s logical to belief that a baseball would not withstand the strength of being hit so hard it is knocked out of the galaxy.
Anyways, since when does God need to hit off a tee? Who’s pitching Earth?
A baseball at 90 mph is about .04 km/s. Ever see a high-speed picture of a baseball being deformed when the bat strikes it? But baseballs are bouncy compared to the earth and so they can take some denting.
Now take that deformation, multiply by 40,000, and step well back.
Duct tape won’t help much.
If you try to accelerate the planet at anything over 9.8 m/s[sup]2[/sup], things that aren’t glued down, like the oceans and topsoil, are going to stay behind. Over a distance of hundreds of miles, rock isn’t much for resisting deformation either. Your duct tape will shred under a tension of only 30 to 40 pounds per inch.
You should get a do-over on the editing when the Board hangs and you can’t get back to a reply box. :mad:
Anyway, I was using a straight multiplier on the velocity from .04 to 1000 km/s. But kinetic energy is proportional both to the m and to velocity squared. 40000[sup]2[/sup] = 1,600,000,000. And the increase in mass of the earth over a baseball is 5.9736×10[sup]24[/sup] kg. So ke = 1/2 mv[sup]2[/sup] or 4.8 x 10[sup]34[/sup] or 48,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times greater than a ball hitting a bat.
Yeah. Vapor.
Hope I got that all right this time. It’s late and I’m heading for bed and half asleep.
