h a l f b a k e r yIt's as much a hovercraft as a pancake is a waffle.
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Build a large clock, or perhaps just a bacon with a chime in it, every
100 metres around the equator. The Earth has an approximate
circumference of 40,000 kms, so we'd need 400,000 clocks or so.
That's not that many, and the production of these could greatly boost
a failing manufacturing economy
somewhere in the world, so let's not
tire ourselves with concepts as trivial as practicality and cost.
Moving swiftly on, each clock chimes at noon, or at least, the noon of
that particular spot on the planet. The result will be a sound that will
zip past you at approximately 1,668km/h. A light atop might help to
further illustrate the astonishing speed at which the Sun is rotating
around the Earth.
This should hopefully remind us all of how small and worthless we
are, and that being nice to each other is blah blah blah, huggy blah
blah.
Agreed?
doner kebab
http://en.wikipedia...ki/D%C3%B6ner_kebab
[normzone, Jul 08 2009]
Mexican Wave
http://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Audience_wave
[normzone, Jul 08 2009]
[link]
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Shouldn't everyone stand up (and then sit back down again) when they hear the noise? |
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Somewhat complicated by the fact that the speed of the earth's surface (relative to 'noon') is greater than the speed of sound. While it takes noon only 0.2 seconds to travel from one clock to the next, it takes sound 0.3 seconds to travel the same distance, so you wouldn't hear the clock 100m to the east of you until after your own clock had struck. |
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Is the speed at which noon travels around the world defined as the speed of time? |
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[Twizz] - only at the Equator, surely? |
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I think that a //bacon// with a chime in it is just excellent!! Will it ring if I eat too much? oh, but that's not what this idea is about... |
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Ah yes, well, you can either have a bacon with a chive in it or a beacon
with a chime in it, or, indeed, any combination thereof. |
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People sitting nearby are welcome to stand, but they have to sit down
before noon has hit the horizon, or it just won't be cricket. |
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//a //bacon// with a chime in it is//
Presumably if it passes through Israel it would be a Turkey with a chime in it, or else a Golem with a Chem in it? |
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[Hippo] I had assumed the whole idea was described as being at the equator (circumference 40,000km etc.) |
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Alternative latitudes add a whole new dimension: |
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At each true pole, would one have a single clock producing a permanent ringing sound? |
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And then a clock 318m away (on a circle of circumference 1km) which strikes only once per day? |
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Perhaps we should pepper the Earth's surface with clocks on each great circle whose circumference is a multiple of 100m - but how to account for differences between circumferencial distance and distance over the local landscape? |
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It's all too much excitement for one day..... |
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//let's not tire ourselves with concepts as trivial as practicality// |
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Still far from the realm of practicality, I thought it would be useful to know how many of these equatorial bacon-bits would be land based. A quick visit to Google Earth shows that roughly 3/4 will be ocean-based. |
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//A light atop might help to further illustrate the astonishing speed at which the Sun is rotating around the Earth.// |
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I thought that was what dawn was for. |
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It seems to appreciate this massive work, one would need a vantage point at some distance; for example, Earth's moon would be suitable. |
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I think this might be suited better to a simulation (checks Google Earth)... Hmm, just click the Sun/cloud icon at the top. I'd suggest that this should be simulated as a plug-in for G.E. before construction commences. + |
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hmmm... is the speed of propogation of frying bacon greater than the speed of sound ? |
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So THAT'S what those things are called (link). I thought this was either about organ donors (could be) or the Donner Party. |
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//At each true pole, would one have a single clock producing a permanent ringing sound?// |
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Or they'd be silent. If it's always noon at the poles it must also be every other time as well. |
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In actual fact, time as we measure it has no meaning at the poles. That's how we can prove that nobody has found them yet--a person actually standing at one of the poles would create a world ending paradox. And if he were, God forbid, wearing a watch, the whole galaxy might implode. |
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