Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

So I can fly, right...

Sax

11:37 / 13.05.02

And I float up to about 100m from the ground, fix myself into a hovering position, and close my eyes, so that I'm not concentrating on any earth-bound landmarks.

As the Earth turns, will I turn with it due to its gravitational pull, or will it turn under me, eventually coming back to the spot I started in after 24 hours?

Jack Fear

12:03 / 13.05.02

The former, I should hope, or you're going to get flattened into the nearest tall building or mountain as it whams into you (rather than you into it) at a truly horrific speed.

Assuming you're not effected by wind currents, at cetera.

It's a lot more complex than it sounds, when you start digging. What you're looking at, essentialy, is the problem of a non-dirigible hot-air balloon. So don't ask me, ask Richard fucking Branson.

No, seriously--100m is not that high, and you're not that massive: even heavy satellites thousands of kilometers above the earth can be coaxed into geosynchronous orbits: and even they are still "falling," albeit at a very slow rate, as their orbits decay--that is, they are still in thrall toearth's gravity.

So I'd guess the former.

But just in case you're planning to actually try this--watch out for tall buildings.

Sax

13:21 / 13.05.02

Just how fast would they slam into me, as it goes?

MJ-12

14:07 / 13.05.02

'bout 1000 mph

grant

14:40 / 13.05.02

circumference of earth (miles) travels by once every 24 hours, thus c/24=speed in miles-per-hour, right?

So, according to the Fermi method, it's about 1,000 miles an hour, yeah.

The Natural Way

14:58 / 13.05.02

...But I have a BIG problem w/ this idea that you've somehow worked out a way to fly. How? Have you built yrself a machine? Blaine-style meditation? Blaine is in touch w/ all kinds of forces through deep meditation. He's brilliant at meditating and can levitate.

Sorry.

Lionheart

17:45 / 13.05.02

Hahahha. Blaine is funny. how he tricks most non-magician people into thinking that he can do all these new magic tricks. Almost every single trick he does can be bought from a proffesional magic trick supplier. And the ice trick is a trick once you figure out that eskimos spend their whole lives living inside blocks of ice.

Sax

09:50 / 14.05.02

Runce, it's not flying as such, more hovering. That's why I was asking. If I can stay still until the earth moves under me, I can effectively fly in a straight line at 1000mph.

MJ-12

13:37 / 14.05.02

Apart from that whole wind stripping the flesh from your bones/suffocation deal.

Sensual Cobra

14:04 / 14.05.02

Blaine's levitation tricks also depend on quite a bit of cognitive psychology to enhance their effect. If you watch his questions to the audience after a so-called "levitation," you can pick up on all the verbal and non-verbal leading he does.

cusm

16:48 / 17.05.02

You might float, but you haven't escaped the physics frame of reference you were in prior to floating. That is, the same frame of reference as the earth rotating, and orbiting around the sun. You will always remain relative to your surrounding frame of reference, as you are already moving at the same speed as the earth. You'd basicly have to escape earth entirely before that sort of thing comes into play. Its like the jumping in a falling elevator problem. You are still squashed, even though you jump, as you are still travelig at tremendous speedfs even though you are standing still relative to the falling car.

Sax

20:29 / 17.05.02

So basically, everyone's saying I should try something else on my day off next week?

Add Your Reply