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[–] 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.)

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