David Savage <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Dec 31, 2007 10:39 AM, David J Brooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I'm a day early, but, looks like the planet has made another orbit > > around the sun, and we still have not blown it up, yet.:-) > > I sure hope you haven't jinxed the planet Dave. There is still a few > hours to go.
I'm not worried. Given the amount of inertia involved, even if something big enough to reverse Earth's course or knock it out of its orbit (I'm counting knocking us into a perpendicular orbit as a case of "not completing this orbit", as well as events that send us hurtling into the sun or out of the solar system -- but if we just get bumped into a nearer or farther orbit in the ecliptic then I'll only consider that a change of schedule) .. given the amount of momentum involved, I have no worries that the planet could be accelerated quickly enough to prevent completion of our current orbit on or close to schedule. :-) (But for folks who _like_ to worry, may I suggest Exit Mundi, a collection of realistic end-of-the-world scenarios? <http://www.exitmundi.nl/exitmundi.htm>) Even the known methods for _destroying_ the Earth, rather than just redirecting it so that it fails to complete its current orbit, take more than 24 hours, so David hasn't jinxed us even if a very resourceful arch-villain is working on it. See: How To Destroy The Earth <http://qntm.org/?destroy> "The Earth is built to _last_. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily. So my first piece of advice to you, dear would-be Earth-destroyer, is: do NOT think this will be easy." (This, of course, is a good time to suggest reading Why Destroy The Earth <http://qntm.org/?why> as well, which includes arguments for why _not_ to.) So my prediction is that despite Mr. Brooks' _admittedly_ premature congratulations, the completion of the current orbit is still a safe bet. Whether he's jinxed the _next_ orbit remains to be seen, but fortunately most known methods of blowing it up will take more than a year to set up ... -- Glenn -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
