The Free Travel !
In his satirical History of Lunar States and Empires(1657), the witty 17th century French writer Cyrano De Bergerac describes an amazing thing which had supposedly happened to him. Experimenting one day, he was lifted up in the air with all his retorts. On landing several hours later, he was astonished to find himself not in his own land of France nor even in Europe, but in Canada.
Strangely enough Cyrano De Bergerac believed his transatlantic flight quite possible, claiming that while he was up in the air, the earth had continued to rotate eastwards which is why he had landed in North America and not France.
A very cheap and simple mode of travel, I must say ! Just ascend and stay suspended for a few minutes and you'll return to a totally different place much further westwards. why tie yourself globe-trottin? Simply hover in mid air and wait till your destination reaches you.
What do you say ?
Strangely enough Cyrano De Bergerac believed his transatlantic flight quite possible, claiming that while he was up in the air, the earth had continued to rotate eastwards which is why he had landed in North America and not France.
A very cheap and simple mode of travel, I must say ! Just ascend and stay suspended for a few minutes and you'll return to a totally different place much further westwards. why tie yourself globe-trottin? Simply hover in mid air and wait till your destination reaches you.
What do you say ?
Labels: friday special, thinktank
posted by Rajesh Lal at
11:36 PM
19 Comments:
dosent the world turn to the west?
shrugs, wouldn't work.
even if you were to just float up, you initial momentum is still going with the earth. And since momentum is vectored, you are going to go with the earth. Also, there are molecules all around you keeping you in place that are also going in the same direction. It may be hard to imagine, but you are going at the same speed as the surface of the earth even when you are standing still.
A simple experiment could be done while driving your car. while at rest, pick up an object and drop in inside your car. Now start moving and hold out the object, and drop it inside your car. You will notice that in both cases the object fell straight down. IT did not get smashed into the back (rear) of your car window. In this situation, are are also moving, so it appears to be falling straight. But a bistander would see the object fall at an angle.
~Cybersurf~
it would take too long, and how do you hover for so long?
The world turns at about 1000 miles/hr (which is how fast we're all moving, as Cybersurf points out). In Cyrano's day, I believe hot air balloons had been invented. Today we'd hover with a helicopter, but it still doesn't work for the reasons explained by Cybersurf.
Thx to Cybersurf and Steve, providing detailed explanations.
The simple key word is "Gravity".
Reminder 4 Steve: Earth (surface) not only rotates at 2000 mph, but also circles around sun. Also the combo plus Milkyway are traveling much faster.
Yes, it'll work if you ride on a rocket & hover "high" enuff, beyond satellites, then you can land at somewhere else in the universe. Shark
helping "god" (6/1 1:44):
No. Globe rotates toward East. Otherwise, sun would rise in West. Shark
God and Gary Shark are wrong.
The sun rises in the east, going west. That means the earth is turning east, the opposite direction. So if you could stop your momentum, you could do it.
law of inertia wont let you
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HAHAHAHHA...
god is not sure which way the world turns... thats a classic... hehehehe
either way it wont work.. gravity, momentum, inertia... whatever...its becuase one of those things..
-Rx
I'd say "in your dreams"
but yes, I was thinking gravity would pull you, no matter what way the earth is rotating. But it goes
east, so therefor it's wrong anyway.
And that guy should be shamed apon for making false statements! :D
Earth Circumference = 24900 mi
Earth Rotation speed = 24 hours
Earth Orbit Circumference = 292M mi
Earth Orbit time = 8766 hours
Galactic orbit circumference = 163K LY
Galactic orbit time = 240M years
Speed due to this movement:
1037 mi/hr around earth
33300 mi/hr around sun
492000 mi/hr around galactic center
So if momentum wasn't a problem, you could go really really fast by just standing still.
but momentum IS a problem. lol
good work sciency people for unlocking this one! :)
stupid one..fundamentals!
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wouldnt you have to leave the atmosphere for the earth to actualy rotate beneath you? and while in the air, wouldnt wind currents move you??
I say it is possible, although somewhat inaccurate.
If you were to go up in a hot air balloon you would certainly travel by "hovering".
Although techincally it isn't the earth moving while you are not.
Steve is very knowledgeable.
For those interested in this, may I add 3 notes, pls?
1) It takes a year (365.25 days) for Earth to rotate around Sun.
365.25d x 24h = 8,766 hrs.
2) Each year, a person spends 2000 h sleeping and 2000 h working. So, can spend 4,766 h sitting at pc and do riddles. :)
3) Steve mentioned 24,900 mi around the Earth, and moving 1,037.5 mph. That's for someone standing at Equator.
Santa moves very slowly, a few inches per hour. Shark
Thanks. Shark
Everyone keeps telling why he's wrong but not saying what happened to him, he didn't "hover" while the earth rotated below him for obvious reasons, but he did travel from france to canada in several hours. However since this happened before 1657, and the first hot air balloon wasn't created untill 1783, he didn't hover or fly to canada. Which means he simply imagined the whole thing, and since he is a writer it is possible that he just got lost in one of his stories that took place in canada and he'd been reading for several hours. So the answer is yes, using your imagination is a simple cheap why to travel.
-Mark After Dark
Also, why is anyone arguing about the rotation of the earth, as shark said it rotates east because if the sun rises in the east then we must be rotating in that direction to be turning towards the sun
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