You need to work with something like the Saturn rocket which apparently did impact the earth in a measurable manner on lift off. For some math wonk you have the mass of earth, mass of rocket and thrust numbers.

Calculable sounds plausible. Measurable doesn't.

But could nerd thighs alter the tilt of the Earth?

laklak wrote:

Thommo wrote: or a variation on the old saw about every Chinese person jumping at once.

I heard some guy on the internet say that if every Chinese person inhaled at the same time it would use up all the oxygen in the world.

I don't know if that's true or not. What do you guys think? Could it be true?

Depends. Many people say if he came to that conclusion via a thought experiment and some back of envelope calculations, it's definitely true.

Thommo wrote:I am puzzling over how this question would *actually* be solved (obviously not with jet engines since angular momentum is conserved) though. I don't know how one goes about finding the energy needed to shift an axis of rotation.

I'd start with one of those physics lectures on gyroscopic precession demonstrating what happens when we apply a force perpendicular to the axis of rotation of a bicycle wheel. In the usual demo, that force is gravity and the axis rotates in a plane perpendicular to the direction of gravity. At least Crumple came up with "gimble". He's heard someone say the word, but then what? What else do we need? Something pronounced "tork". Hey Hey we're the Monkees.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Fallible wrote:‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Love how it’s used here

I think that's exactly what God did at Jericho, slowed down the earth. That's why the walls came down, and the sun stood still in the sky. All so Joshua and his lot could genocide the shit out of the Canaanites.

Even if possible, I will have to say 'don't do it'.

1.) It's too risky - would you trust the people in control to get the rotation correct? If it goes wrong, how do you fix it? If the machines break 1/2 through changing the tilt, what are the backup plans?

2.) It's too risky - could be hacked by terrorists, and controlled to cause havoc. Then the news will say it's a natural disaster, or all Trumps fault.

3.) It's too risky - you're messing with the entire biosphere. You would need permission from every single leader on Earth. Or it's basically an act of war.

4.) Leave Earth alone - go to another planet, and try it there 1st.

5.) Even if you do succeed in creating the perfect state for Earth, all it would take is 1 CME from the sun, to change the balance again?

6.) Don't tell Elon. He'll steal the idea.

7.) What would be the financial cost? How much heat would these jet engines produce? At the poles, of all areas.

I think I felt some brain cells die when I read that.

Thommo wrote:I think I felt some brain cells die when I read that.

Oh I'm sorry, are you taking this 'thought experiment' seriously?
Plus cells die off naturally, even brain cells.

Your jokes aren't funny.

JustStarDust wrote:

Thommo wrote:I think I felt some brain cells die when I read that.

Oh I'm sorry, are you taking this 'thought experiment' seriously?
Plus cells die off naturally, even brain cells.

Your jokes aren't funny.

And yours were? Or are you taking it seriously?

JustStarDust wrote:

Thommo wrote:I think I felt some brain cells die when I read that.

Oh I'm sorry, are you taking this 'thought experiment' seriously?
Plus cells die off naturally, even brain cells.

Your jokes aren't funny.

Oh god, it’s been so nice to visit here of a morning and not have to wade through piles of your vapid, weightless shit at the end of every thread. I don’t know why that state of grace has suddenly ended, but you add nothing to this place, and arguably take something away. Thommo’s comments, on the other hand, always add something, even if it’s only another reflection of my own views, which you may have otherwise succeeded in draining the requisite mental energy from me to actually say. Why you appear to expect the people here to give you an education or watch your shit videos is anyone’s guess, but you’re fooling yourself if you think you add a thing with your empty headed bilge.

Indeed, Thommo is often a breath of fresh air and I like it when he challenges my post as it's always reasoned and fair.

Thommo wrote:Jet engines move air. Air is part of the Earth. What you're proposing is changing the Earth's movement by pushing against itself, or a variation on the old saw about every Chinese person jumping at once.

Never mind the absence of showing your working (and, in fact, the answer that working supposedly arrives at) the premise itself is nonsense, there's no net change in the angular momentum from the operation of a jet engine at all, you'd need to expel air from the Earth's atmosphere altogether to have an effect.

Without actually doing the calculation myself it seems unlikely that a jet engine pumping air out of the Earth's system would put much of a dent in the 2.138×1029 J of rotational energy the Earth has anyway.

To shift the axis of the Earth, we need to launch more than one rocket. And the weight of all the Chinese is a drop in the ocean compared to the weight of the planet. So, all these theories about jumping and launching are nonsense. You need to study physics, astronomy in order to understand the logic of orbital displacement. And this also requires space flights, observation of the processes taking place on Earth from afar. Recently, I have been interested in the developments of space companies, it’s very interesting how the development of our space industry will come. The British space company is very interested, it seems a newcomer to the space exploration market, not as famous as the mastodons in this field, but the ideas are fresh. I'd like to see the results of research on the development of natural disasters. After all, nothing is taken out of the blue. There is a pattern and a combination of factors in everything.