we are used to anticipating danger from
outer space a huge almost unknown space
hostile to humans and no wonder colossal
explosions take place asteroids and
comets travel at tremendous speed there
are black holes and all this can
potentially cause the death of the earth
but what about something small for
example an ordinary sewing needle what
if one finds itself in space accelerates
to the speed of light and then crashes
into our planet
any object consisting of matter can't
move at the speed of light or faster so
scientists from NASA are unlikely to
ever consider such a disaster well I
will do it for them today you'll see how
dangerous such small things can be if
they are properly accelerated and at the
same time you'll learn about another
strange scenario of the end of the world
our planet is constantly bombarded by
various cosmic bodies we don't even
notice most of them they just burn up in
the atmosphere
sometimes celestial bodies managed to
reach the visibility zone and even make
some noise take for example the
Chelyabinsk meteor or the very asteroid
that caused the dinosaurs
to become extinct but the fact is that
all these celestial bodies move very
slowly of course considering the scale
of the universe
for example the Chile events meteor was
moving at a speed of 60 to 69 thousand
kilometers per hour that's 37 to 43,000
miles per hour
now imagine that one day scientists will
report the terrible news an unknown
object is approaching earth at the speed
of light it's very small the size of a
needle or even a grain of sand if at
this stage you had time to think that
there's nothing to worry about
it is in vain what seems ridiculous at
first glance poses a serious danger to
our planet
the consequences would be terrible it's
all about speed for example take a car
if it moves at a speed of about 50 km/h
or 31 miles per hour and hits a person
the person will survive if you
accelerate the car to 65 km/h or 40
miles per hour then the collision could
result in death or serious injuries the
speed of life is almost 300,000
kilometers per second
that's 186,000 miles per second this is
very fast in nature visible light and
other types of electromagnetic radiation
travel at the speed of light and also
possibly gravitational waves
scientists believe that massive
particles can't move at the speed of
light they can only come close to it for
example protons are accelerated just to
near light speed in the Large Hadron
Collider so a needle approaches the
earth at the speed of light or a grain
of sand in general something very small
the length of the simplest sewing needle
is about 35 millimeters or one in four
tenths of an inch the size of a large
grain of sand can reach five millimeters
or nineteen hundreds of an inch for
comparison the same Chelyabinsk meteor
had a diameter of about twenty meters or
66 feet the difference is huge but in
this case the size does not matter even
a tiny object having accelerated to
tremendous speed will become deadly it
won't burn up in the atmosphere and will
not explode in flight the bonds that
ensure the integrity of an object will
stop working a grain of sand or a needle
will simply become a bunch of atoms
passing through the air
but the real danger is kinetic energy I
won't bore you with calculations will
immediately get to the result the
kinetic energy for example of a grain of
sand which has nearly accelerated to the
speed of light will be equal to the
kinetic energy of an object weighing 100
tons that is falling from a height of a
15 story building it is as if the
largest part of the Statue of Liberty
fell from its pedestal in one fell swoop
so if a needle rushing at the speed of
light strikes the earth will scientists
have time to notice it it's hard to say
but in a collision with the surface of
our planet all the kinetic energy will
go into the energy of the explosion the
power released will be similar to the
energy of a nuclear bomb approximately
43 kilotons of tnt and that's a lot the
bomb
Fatman dropped on Nagasaki had a
capacity of about 21 kilotons just
compare the two an ordinary needle and a
nuclear bomb that destroyed an entire
city in order to understand what kind of
destructions such a collision can make
you need to choose a city for example
New York where else should a needle
moving at the speed of light strike if
not Manhattan cinematic alien invasions
happen here if an atomic bomb of the
same power were dropped here then most
of Manhattan and the surrounding area
would be destroyed even at a distance of
4 kilometers or 2 and a half miles
building windows would break people who
are a little closer to the epicenter
would suffer serious harm for example
all the inhabitants of Hell's Kitchen
would get third-degree burns
Central Park will be almost completely
burned people who are within 1 and a
half kilometers or less than a mile of
the place where the bomb Falls are
likely to die within a month
the needle bomb can also penetrate below
ground creating a huge crater with its
explosion and yes the Statue of Liberty
will definitely fall from its pedestal
perhaps right into the water what about
the big wave there is another version of
how this might go it's less scientific
but much more spectacular I'm sure
you'll want to see it crashing into the
planet the needle disappears into the
Earth's crust a plasma cloud will spread
from the entry point to the sides energy
will escape through the body of the
planet and along with it many particles
created by the collision with the
Earth's crust it will become a colossal
fountain of everything that our earth is
made up of in a split second it will
become so hot that there will be nothing
left alive on the surface the energy
will be so great that it will exceed the
energy of the gravitational coupling of
the planet see what all this means
explosion the earth will simply be torn
apart faster than you have time to blink
however there will be no one left to do
so anyway the solar system will change
forever and all because of some small
needle however this whole situation is
of course hypothetical so there's an
alternative point of view some
physicists believe that because of too
much kinetic energy and enormous inertia
the needle will simply pierce the earth
through and this will happen so quickly
that no one will even notice the needle
will come out the other side of the
planet and continue its flight perhaps
due to interaction with the mantle and
the Earth's crust earthquakes will begin
but they are unlikely to be strong
ultimately humanity will easily survive
whatever happens but what if the needle
doesn't strike the ground or even the
water but rather a person the
probability of this is quite small but
it's still there it would seem that this
is just like the Statue of Liberty which
dropped
on your head yes and from the 15th floor
it sounds like it's impossible to
survive the kinetic energy of the needle
will be very strong if your body absorbs
it completely it will simply explode
but physics is a tricky thing due to the
high energy and small size the needle in
contact with the skin will immediately
begin to destroy all the bonds between
cells in this case the rest of the body
will feel almost nothing the object will
simply move through the body dissipating
a little of its energy into friction in
slightly increasing your temperature as
a result the needle will be able to make
an almost perfect hole in your body not
a single vital organ is affected not
seriously anyway and the wound is likely
to be cauterized I'll try to summarize
does it make sense to fear needles that
travel at the speed of light I think
everyone will decide for themselves but
still I hope that extraterrestrial
civilizations are sufficiently developed
and will so with the help of something
else if you liked the post give it a
share up don't forget to subscribe
Post a Comment