this post was submitted on 22 May 2024
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xkcd

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https://xkcd.com/2935

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I can't believe they wouldn't even let me hold a vote among the passengers about whether to try the loop.

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[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 55 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Next try to calculate what it would actually mean to make that much water follow a path like that. My guess is, it’s going to get very spicy.

[–] towerful@programming.dev 56 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The xkcd explained brushes near it.

Many of the passengers would suffer extreme injuries from the changes of velocity (up to 230 mph based on a loop radius of 3 x ship length) and rotation (unlike rollercoasters, or even airplanes during simple take-off and landing, passengers aren't normally strapped down).

[–] Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Can't you just tell them to hold on to something?

[–] randomaccount43543@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago
[–] linkinkampf19@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Tales from the Loop

Sorrynotsorry, I've just got into watching it and it fit so... haha.

[–] naeap@sopuli.xyz 4 points 10 months ago

Thanks, you just gave me something to watch :-)

(Although I'll finish my current season of doctor who first)

[–] TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Holy shit I wonder if it's even humanly possible to build one of these in the ocean for any size ship.

[–] MethodicalSpark@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Maybe something small, like a jetski…

[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Cruise ship or bust.

And it's just a drawing but I'm trying to realize it in actual size. Cruise ships are huge, pushing 250 or so feet out of the water. That's considered a high-rise in the construction world.

Now I look at that loopdy-lopp and say hey, that boat could fit. I'm ignoring all the other physics and shit and just Matchbox car'g that boat through that loop. That makes that loop like, what, 1000 feet? And that is ignoring the structure beneath the surface, and also the other dimensions of this, and the sheer velocity and volume of water.

So I'm gonna call this one a hard maybe. Perhaps if the world could set aside it's differences, we could do a sort of space race, but instead a ship flip, or a boat float, or some other rhyme.

[–] Localhorst86@feddit.de 5 points 10 months ago

sounds like an idea for a "what if" scenario. I know just the author to pitch this to...

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Or a witch.

[–] renormalizer@feddit.de 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You just have to go fast enough. The minimum speed keeping you from falling out of a circular loop is sqrt(gr), with gravitational acceleration g and loop radius r. 10m radius requires 36km/h, which might be suitable for a Jetski. Larger ships need bigger loops to physically fit, and consequently larger speeds. It's quite surprising, but a monstrous 100m radius loop needs less than 120km/h.

[–] TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

so mass doesn't factor into the equation??? a Jetski made from aluminum would need the same speed as from osmium?

[–] renormalizer@feddit.de 1 points 10 months ago

I think so. At the apex of the loop gravity balances centrifugal force, Fg = Fc, when going the minimal speed necessary to get through the loop. Fg = m g, Fc = m v^2 / r. So mass m drops out of the equation.

[–] Seaguy05@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Maybe they're just on the Grand Line headed to the new world?

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 10 months ago

With enough knock up power maybe we could reach the sky with this bad boy.