you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 20 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Recently there was a rumor spreading around my work that the earth was about to lose gravity for seven seconds and they should stay home to be safe.

  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago* (1 child)

    No, no. It’s absolutely true.

    Scientists have known for years that the Earth’s gravitational field is remarkably stable, except when I fart.

    At precisely 8:47 PM, I unleashed a fart of such extraordinary magnitude that NASA immediately detected a gravitational anomaly.

    For exactly seven seconds, gravity simply gave up.

    Cars floated. Birds were suddenly extremely confused. Somewhere in Ohio, a man watched his refrigerator slowly drift toward the ceiling.

    NASA scrambled to identify the source.

    “Where is this coming from?”

    The technician checked the instruments.

    “Sir… Georgia.”

    A long silence followed.

    “Dear God.”

    At exactly seven seconds, gravity returned.

    Scientists are now studying the event.

    I have been asked not to fart again.

    I have declined to comment.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    I do oft wonder about the Dzhanibekov effect, and what the inertial effects (direction/strength/duration/curves/etc) would be like at each location on the spinning object, and if Earth's Large Low-Velocity Provinces (LLVPs) or Large Low Shear Velocity Provinces are sufficient tributary oscillation to trigger a flip as some interpretations of the evidence suggest has happened to earth before (most recent suggestion I heard, this may have happened 700,000 years ago, iirc ~ or was it 700 million... I forget), ... and in that moment, would there be locations that experience an effective loss of local gravity for seconds?

    If such is going to happen (or just a magnetic flip, or a corona mass ejection, or a X100 flare, or a meteor bombardment, a rogue planet flyby perturbing orbits, or whatever other calamitous disruption to the pleasant habitability of Earth), to be safe, I think I'd rather have a spaceship to fly away instantly in, than stay home. (I guess humans should not have been industrially sabotaging and suppressing that arc of human made technological innovation for a century or two.)

  • source
  • parent