UNDER CONSTRUCTION
I'm a graduate student and creative consultant in Los Angeles. My academic research focuses on international affairs, social psychology and human behaviour. I am also interested in technology, politics, economics, security studies, foreign policy, literature, film, fine art, mathematics, physics, biology, history, design, professional sports, astronomy, agriculture, linguistics and education.
Posts tagged planet
The antipode of a point on Earth is the point diametrically opposite it—where you’d end up if you dug a tunnel straight through the Earth. Most land is antipodal to the sea. Above is a map showing antipodal points, with the overlap (orange) showing places where, if you did manage to dig straight through our planet, you’d end up on land. As you can see, if you want to dig straight to China, you better start in Chile or Argentina.
From Wikipedia
2.4 million pounds of plastic pollution enters the world’s oceans every hour. It’s been estimated that around 50,000 pieces of plastic are floating in every square mile of the world’s oceans.
Scientists have estimated the first cosmic census of planets in our galaxy and the numbers are astronomical: at least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way. At least 500 million of those planets are in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold zone where life could exist.
The numbers were extrapolated from the 2011 results of NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler telescope.
If you encountered no air resistance you’d accelerate until you passed through the center at 18,000 mph, then slow as you ascended through the opposite hemisphere. At the far end you’d have just time to tip your hat to the surprised antipodeans before you fell home again, and you’d continue oscillating like this forever.
“If this shaft had its starting-point on one of the mountain plateaux of South America at an elevation of seven thousand feet,” wrote Camille Flammarion in 1909, “and if it issued at the sea-level at the other side, a man who had fallen into the shaft would arrive at the antipodes still travelling at such a speed that the spectators would see this strange projectile shot to a height of seven thousand feet into the air.”
On the other hand, if our straight tunnel connected two points that were not precise antipodes, then we could install a train powered by gravity — it would roll “downhill” on the first part of its journey, and momentum would carry it through the second (again neglecting air resistance and friction). Curiously, in all these cases the total trip would take the same length of time — about 42 minutes.
Source Greg Ross
