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I would imagine that what the five year old who asked wanted was an intuitive sense of how far away the moon is. My answer would have been far less interesting.
by yosito 8y ago
I would imagine that what the five year old who asked wanted was an intuitive sense of how far away the moon is. My answer would have been far less interesting. I would assume a reasonable rate at which a child slides down a pole, say 1 meter per second, multiplied by roughly 384,000km from the moon to Earth, and it would take a little over 12 years.
- jameshart 8y agoLet me guess - your favorite map projection is Goode Homolosine. You like easy solutions. You think we wouldn't have so many problems if we'd just elect normal people to Congress instead of Politicians. You think airlines should just buy food from the restaurants near the gates and serve that on board. You change your car's oil, but secretly wonder if you really need to.
- saagarjha 8y agoFor reference: https://www.xkcd.com/977/ https://www.xkcd.com/977/
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- hyperpallium 8y agoFor mobile: https://m.xkcd.com/977/ https://m.xkcd.com/977/
- yosito 8y agoಠ_ಠ
- gutnor 8y agoYou never know with 5 years old. It could be what you say, or it could be some topic they are deeply interested in and will want to know all the little tiny details. I had a discussion with some 4 years old about fire extinguisher and why there were 2 at the nursery. My simple explanation was disappointing to one and I learned from his mom that it ended up looking the various type of firetruck and what number of what type of fire extinguisher they were carrying as well as the various hose option, the different type of fire and the various safety labels on product helping determining the type of fire they produce, ... The others where also unhappy with the few details I provided, it seems "there is a big one and a smaller one" was what they were expecting.
- ranit 8y agoThe whole book is about, as the subtitle states "Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions". (Sorry for saying the (possibly) obvious.) And this is what makes it wonderful.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- gus_massa 8y agoPerhaps this could has been in the first paragraph, as an easy comparison (1m/s looks too small). And then add the details of the variation of the Earth gravity with the distance and then the part about the gravity of the Moon, and then in the third paragraph get to the complete technical explanation. Anyway, sending a question to "What If?" is like sending a question to Mythbusters. You never get an easy answer, but an overthinked answer that involves some destruction and explosions.