Well thats great then, I can say I ran a marathon this month.
If you never left the course, yes.
Anything from the Ad Council
That is exactly my point. He swam the Atlantic but in 73 separate swims. Still very impressive
Some more things that may be possible ???
Jumping from orbit to the ground. (Yes I know about the ones by Baumgartner). What I am thinking is from an orbit of say 100 miles height.
Crossing the Antarctic in their winter
Walking from the North Pole to the South Pole (It has been driven, I think)
The orbital speed at 100 miles is about 7.8 km/s, or 17,500 mph. Hitting the atmosphere at that speed and surviving is not possible.
This is correct. The point of these things is the location/object. As others have mentioned it is a very impressive feat but what he really did was take 73 extended swims in the ocean which if strung together would equal the distance of the Atlantic.
If I take 31,000 3 foot jumps it would not be correct to say I jumped across the Grande Canyon.
Well, we already know which Dopers can and cannot fit their wedding rings up their noses, so start with the ones that can and go from there.
Given that the fastest Marathon time has dropped from 2:08 and change when I started running in the '80s to 2:02 and a lot of change today (just sub-2:03), I think it is inevitable that the 2 hour barrier will eventually be broken. If I had to guess I would say another 20 years, but there may be a freak who does it sooner.
Personally I won’t count it if the runner(s) follow a wind-breaking car, but it will still be quite a feat. When Bannister broke the 4 minute mile, his pace-setters needed to complete the race to make it count - I think the same spirit should be employed for the Marathon.
It’s impossible. Their skin would fall off (the phenomenon has been documented in cases of wreck survival who were in the water constantly for much shorter times than would be necessary to swim the Atlantic.
And a drysuit probably wouldn’t help - not for that sort of duration.
The point about the swim though is that he might not have swum that many miles. If he swam 10 miles and then drifted over night then all the miles he drifted are miles he didn’t actually swim.
I know it’s not possible to swim for 70 days, but if someone says I swam the Atlantic, but doesn’t stay in the same general area when they get out to sleep and drifts, I wouldn’t say they swam across the Atlantic.
Martin Strel has done a lot of swimming in rivers, and I believe when he stops for the day he goes back to where he gets out and starts again the next day.
Meh, I bet Rosie Ruiz could do it.
Has anybody managed to sit through the director’s cut of Apocalypse Now without touching the remote or leaving the room?
If you “jump” from orbit, nothing happens. You just continue orbiting alongside whatever you jumped from. Most of the energy requirement to reach or exit orbit is for the huge lateral acceleration.
https://what-if.xkcd.com/58/
The endeavor is, presumably, to “jump” from outer space, while moving far below orbital speed, so that you would indeed fall. Outer space is conventionally deemed to start at 100km.
That’s what Virgin Galactic is aiming for, so that would be one way to get there.
You would need a whole lot of protection, and it seems to me that the delineation between what constitutes a spacesuit and a small spaceship would be somewhat arbitrary. It’s unclear to me what you’re really achieving by stepping out of the vehicle that got you up there.
Is this thread only about solo efforts? Could a team of two people swim the Atlantic without stopping? When one gets out of the water, the other gets in; gives them a chance to sleep and hopefully solves that whole skin-dissolving issue. I’d still be plenty impressed.
Could two people do it? Twelve hours a day, every day, would still be pretty damn taxing. Is it doable with three people (eight hours a day)?
No, but I once made it all the way to the tiger scene without the use of any type of physical restraint.
Though many have tried, no US child has ever succeeded in digging a hole “clear to China”, or vice versa.
[sub]Some say it can’t be done, others suggest the key is to turn left at Albuquerque.[/sub]
BTW Baumgartner was 24 miles high but *not *in orbit when he jumped.
No subways.
Eh, I could do it with just a '59 Corvette.
I’m not sure how you could actually jump from orbit. You’d miss the ground!