story by using. What if the entire continental US was on a decreasing slope from West to East. "Look how much we're paying now to deal with the hurricanes," Biden said. Would it negate the need for a heat shield? (I don't know why six feetbut that's what he asked.). wiped out. Since then only three more articles were released in 2016, the first two with about 8 weeks between them and then more than 12 weeks. It was published on September 2, 2014, and the UK edition of the book was published on September 4, 2014. Unlike the last article, out after almost a 15 weeks break, this one was released only a bit more than week after that. ", In August 2019, the news website Axios wrote that sources who heard the president's private remarks in recorded comments in a National Security Council (NSC) memorandum claimed to have heard Trump asking top national security officials to "consider using nuclear bombs to weaken or destroy hurricanes. What English word has the most consecutive letters on the same key? It includes hot water but I have to pay the electric bill. It turns out the ramp would need to be five miles high (8 km) to make this possible, and that would be at a speed slower than walking. It includes this rather The release date in the archive is the wrong month June. The eight two weeks break, 14th break in total. But after defeating the Nazis and inventing the atom bomb, scientists seemed to think anything was possible, including controlling the weather. Why can't we do that?" She has learned enough about the rules of the road to know never to drive into the ocean; however, she jokingly suggested that given a sufficient quantity of rental cars, she could eventually get to Europe by driving east repeatedly. First two months break of at least two in a row, the 15th break in total. So basically, even if nuking a hurricane could move more air than is even conceivable, we'd still have a small hurricane on our hands. The area is now marked by a 100-kilometer-wide scar of magma sizzling petrified wood mixed with sand buried beneath the Louisiana and Texas near future, and outlined the potential military uses and dangers of What if a spacecraft slowed down on re-entry to just a few miles per hour using rocket boosters like the Mars-sky-crane? What would happen if I dug straight down, at a speed of 1 foot per second? Every now and then, Munroe would get emails asking him to arbitrate a science debate. What if there was a lake on the Moon? But the winds of a hurricane can destroy anything, on any level. If, on the other hand, you're being attacked by a coyote, it's higher top speed means you'll have only one chance to hit it. Here's what would happen if you nuked a hurricane. The debris played a key role in identifying the During this lovely dinner I was forced to liberate a small portion of wind and was relieved that I managed to do so very discretely. What if we recreated the film "Armageddon," but instead of an asteroid, it was a massive storm; instead of Ben Affleck, it was just some guy; and instead of a nuclear bomb it was actually, no, it would still be a nuclear bomb. My 4 year old son and I were wondering about soccer ball sized hail today. Don't take any chances. The website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. government agency that tracks changes in weather and ocean conditions, has a page explaining why scientists don't recommend disrupting hurricanes with nuclear weapons. There is no way to tell in advance which ones will develop." Jack W. Reed began his military career as an Air Force meteorologist during the closing days of World War II. August 26, 2019. After acknowledging that the question has been answered elsewhere, he recaps the result, but then focuses more intently on the unasked resulting issue of the aftermath of everyone on Earth being magically transported to one location as they all try to return home. How much volume would they take up and what would they look like? turbulent warm water and explosion debris. According to the report, as How much damage would a hail storm with size 5 soccer ball sized hail do? The basic idea goes like this-the Pentagon should bomb the eye of a tropical storm, thereby dispersing it and saving countless lives and millions of dollars. When (if ever) did the Sun finally set on the British Empire? This somehow turns back time [ ] How much energy would someone flying around the Earth have to exert in order to reverse the Earth's rotation? Hurricane Where-the-Hell-Is-Bermuda enters from the east side of the map, wanders around the Atlantic in a scribble, goes north for a while, and then peters out. The Mariana Trench is gone, and with it Guam and the Mariana Islands. Hurricanes cause destruction in lots of ways, but the big one is wind. How close could I stand to watch it? My boyfriend recently took a flight on a plane with wifi, and while he was up there, wistfully asked if I could send him a pizza. More details.. And cut down the great tree, quite as dramatic as Evin might have imagined. In the memo, one of the eight ideas Freeman discusses is the use of The bubble grows to about a kilometer across in a couple of seconds. This warm water creates humid air, which then gets thrust upwards by tropical winds to create storm clouds. This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). Not even mad scientists, but respected ones. What would happen from the impact of the mountain falling 1 inch? How many fireflies would it take to match the brightness of the Sun? Would it do more environmental damage than it is already apparently doing? This book can't stop most bullets; if you want to use it for armour, you may want a lot more than one copy. I heard that bananas are radioactive. How big a hole do I need to dig before people suffocate? What would happen if you were to gather a mole (unit of measurement) of moles (the small furry critter) in one place? At that point, the storm had almost blown itself out and was heading away from the East Coast back out to the ocean. If you call a random phone number and say God bless you, what are the chances that the person who answers just sneezed? This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. Explosion: \[\text{Radius} = \left (\frac{3}{4\pi}\right )^\frac{1}{3}\left ( \frac{40 \% \times 53\text{ megatons of TNT}}{\text{Mariana Trench pressure}+\text{1 ATM}} \right)^\frac{1}{3}\approx580\text{ meters}\]. This work is licensed under a Could a high-speed train run through a vertical loop, like a rollercoaster, with the passengers staying comfortable? memo from his father, and was kind enough to show it to me. What about using a squirrel suit? National Geographic says it was a meteorologist named Jack W. Reed who first pitched the idea of using nukes peacefully, by dropping them on hurricanes. People, in other words, have spent a good deal of time coming up with ideas for stopping hurricanes. is a blog hosted on the xkcd.com domain and written by Randall Munroe with entries posted occasionally. Before these massive storms had names and categories, they were still wreaking havoc. If winds reached 500 mph, would it pick up a human? This means you're free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them). Freemans son, science historian George Dyson, got a paper copy of the My son (5y) asked me today: If there were a kind of a fireman's pole from the Moon down to the Earth, how long would it take to slide all the way from the Moon to the Earth? In 1962, physicist Freeman Dyson wrote a memo discussing eight possible As long as you don't touch strange things and you don't swim too close to the fuel rods, it would be just like a regular pool. With the announced release of the what if? If you suddenly began rising steadily at one foot per second, how exactly would you die? Using only pronounceable letter combinations, how long would names have to be to give each star in the universe a unique one word name? 53,000,000 megatons is approximately the energy of the Chicxulub impact. Or looking straight up at the bolt? {{Title text: I'd like to see more damage assessments for hurricanes hitting New York and flooding Manhattan -- something like the 1938 Long Island Express, but aimed a bit more to the west. }}, xkcd.com is best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.0 or below on a Pentium 31 emulated in Javascript on an Apple IIGS, https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/log_scale.png, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. The seventh two weeks break, 13th break in total. There is an easy way to link to a given what if? Well, sort of. 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions was released on September 13. }}, xkcd.com is best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.0 or below on a Pentium 31 emulated in Javascript on an Apple IIGS, https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/upcoming_hurricanes.png, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. The article is about the slope needed to be able to coast on a bike, without using the pedals, across mainland USA. They are destructive but also relatively contained and short-lived, making them perfect for scientists to try to mess with. If they looked at our star right now, what would they see? The Mariner 1 has traveled much farther than Voyager 1. Through the decades, theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that researchers tried a laundry list of ways to stop hurricanes, including "seeding clouds with dry ice or silver iodide, reducing evaporation from the ocean surface with thin-layers of polymers, cooling the ocean with cryogenic material or icebergs, changing the radiational balance in the hurricane environment by absorption of sunlight with carbon black, flying jets clockwise in the eyewall to reverse the flow, exploding the hurricane apart with hydrogen bombs, and blowing the storm away from land with giant fans, etc.". Bernard Le Mehaute and Shen Wang. They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion. How many perfect scores would there be? If all the trees were one tree, Better to just carry a sign. But this raised the question: could a bird deliver a standard 20" New York-style cheese pizza in a box? You just might not be prepared for how big you will need to be dreaming. Also, the Earth would be destroyed. Gasoline: 46 Hurricane Freud starts in the Gulf of Mexico, draws a set of balls to Florida's cock, and then comes on land and stops. In that year (assuming no more comics before February 26 2017), only 8 articles where released including both 147 and this one. What's the likelihood this could happen? the probability of achieving a perfect SAT score by guessing) to completely fictional questions (e.g. After World War II, they started trying in a big way. If Michael Phelps could hold his breath indefinitely, how long would it take for him to reach the lowest point in the ocean and back if he swam straight down and then straight back up? Hurricanes [] Hurricane Where-The-Hell-Is-Bermuda []. Then, while falling, I release the helium and fill the balloon. If you make the words pronounceable by always alternating vowels and consonants, the names would be about 24 letters long. And since currents move everything in the ocean around, radioactive fallout would not stay in one place and would definitely make it to land eventually. Hey! Humanity would survive if the robots cared about keeping themselves alive as well. It had ended a war almost instantaneously, it was cleaner and cheaper than traditional fuels, so why couldn't it do something like fix the pesky problem of hurricanes? "People were astonished. Weather Bureau (the forerunner of the National Weather Service), Francis W. Riechelderfer (pictured), heard about this idea and did not laugh until he cried. A fully developed hurricane can release heat energy at a rate of 5 to 20x1013 watts and converts less than 10% of the heat into the mechanical energy of the wind. sprawling 400-page report produced for the Department of Defense by If our Twitter timelines (tweets by the people we follow) actually extended off the screen in both directions, how tall would they be? We know that there are more deadly hurricanes now than there used to be, but they don't start out that way. (We have an idea for selling bottled Europa water.). 30 years to walk, much longer for the sentence. Category:Hurricanes - explain xkcd. It answers many important questions, including whether you could jump from a plane with a helium tank and inflate balloons fast enough to slow your fall and survive (yes) and whether you could hide from a supersonic windstorm in Finland (yes, but it won't help). In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. Pin it to the stack. less than an hour to encircle the Earth. ", "You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting," the source told Axios. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. off deep underwater acts a bit differently. The world just has too many people. it gets, we can try a formula from the 1971 paper Evaluation of A nuke set It then seemed to stop completely after those two, and it took more than a year (62 weeks) before #157. The second of two longer shifts in release day two weeks in a row which resulted in only two releases over three weeks, resulting in the eight break in total. When my wife and I started dating she invited me over for dinner at one time. When, if ever, will Facebook contain more profiles of dead people than of living ones? What a great splish-splash that would be! effects has not been made. He liked these questions so much that he started up What If. The heat release is equivalent. quickly-expanding spherical cavity of hot steam. In most cases this tends to heat the bowl or plate more than the food. "The short answer is 'no,'" Hugh Willoughby, a professor and hurricane researcher at Florida International University and total buzzkill, told Florida Today. If you had a printed version of the whole of (say, the English) Wikipedia, how many printers would you need in order to keep up with the changes made to the live version? Or what if you were doing a backflip? But scientists know they don't know everything and that is even scarier. In Armageddon, a NASA guy comments that a plan to shoot a laser at the asteroid is like shooting a b.b. After the meeting ended, we thought, 'What the f*ck? part of the ocean. Not with regular lasers, but with more power, you could destroy the world. what if? 48,364 views Sep 26, 2019 1.4K Dislike Share Science Insider 2.24M subscribers Dropping a nuclear bomb into a hurricane is a decades-old idea for how to stop a. Those storms don't even get names, so they can't be that big a deal. What if you exploded a nuclear bomb (say, the Tsar Bomba) at the bottom of the Marianas Trench? Partway down the side of that skyscraper there's a flagpole sticking out, sans flag! And if so, what kind of bird would it take? It's the winds that need to be slowed down to stop a hurricane, and nukes would be laughably ineffective at it. Regardless of the context, Randall tends to take the questions extremely literally and responds seriously to them, even if they are whimsical (such as the Yoda question). ", Still, we shouldn't stop people from dreaming. Magic, because science just works like that. 2 came out. What height would humans reach if we kept growing through our whole development period (i.e. While the president was assured they would look into it, obviously this plan never went anywhere. the only thing to do would be to make a swimming pool. If you went outside and lay down on your back with your mouth open, how long would you have to wait until a bird pooped in it? till late teens/early twenties) at the same pace as we do during our first month? What would kill me first? With less than 3 weeks between releases, releases seems to have become more regular in the beginning of 2017. Hurricanes are tropical storms, the water they form over needs to be above 26C (79F) for them to work. 2 book. ", "I never said that," Trump retorted. At 53 megatons, the Tsar Bomba was the most powerful nuclear weapon ever Enough soda to cover Earth with ten layers of cans. has not stopped but the first comic in 2017 (#153, January 30, 2017) came almost 15 weeks after the last in 2016, more than three months between releases. This is a list of comics featuring Nuclear weapons, nuclear bombs of any kind or mentiong of Nuclear war Randall often makes comics that refers to these kinds of weapons. And also, Donald Trump allegedly threw it out there as an idea a few times while president. It was almost a year ago that two comics had been released with less than two full weeks between them (that was #147 released February 26, 2016). it would split into many islands and the Netherlands will take over. convulsions. At what speed would you have to drive for rain to shatter your windshield? That's scientist talk for "We are so screwed." You can almost visualize his wide-eyed innocence, wanting to take two deadly forces and use them to destroy each other, to benefit mankind. pressure from that six miles of water overhead causes it to collapse. (In other words, how long could we chuck nukes at hurricanes until our nuclear arsenal ran out?). A normal person would not get buried. Hurricane Illinois-Has-It-Too-Easy comes from somewhere to the northwest, goes through Illinois, and then back to the northwest. It was released. In the absence of an And even hurricanes that don't post numbers like those ruin lives. Her kitchen had something called Bauhaus chairs, which are full of holes, approx 5-6 millimeters in diameter in both back and seat. much less catastrophic than a direct nuclear attack. If cows could photosynthesize, how much less food would they need? Answer: NO!!!!! I've occasionally seen "radar enforced" on speed limit signs, and I can't help but ask: How intense would radio waves have to be to stop a car from going over the speed limit, and what would happen if this were attempted? Sugar: 19 Even at the time, experts were divided on whether the cloud seeding had caused the hurricane's seemingly impossible redirection. What in my pocket actually contains more energy, my Zippo or my smartphone? If we ever got desperate enough to try to nuke a hurricane and crossed our fingers that something unexpected would happen, we might be rather disappointed when that unexpected thing was a disaster we could never have predicted. For many people, the fact that Donald Trump thought nuking hurricanes would be a good idea automatically means it must be insane. This memo has been declassified, but was never published. What would happen if one tried to funnel Niagara Falls through a straw? The article 137 from July 14, 2015 was about the New Horizons probe. Could you electrofish for a blue whale? The most obvious concern when it comes to nuking a hurricane, of course, is nuclear fallout. At what point in human history were there too many (English) books to be able to read them all in one lifetime? As the first two were released on week 1, this means that there were 134 articles released over the next 143 weeks, meaning there were only 9 weeks without an article. There is a water average. We've been to the Moon! bookprovides First regular release. This page was last edited on 11 January 2023, at 02:47. Randall announced his what if? If your cells suddenly lost the power to divide, how long would you survive? The reason for this you can read at the Editor FAQ . What if the mountain's base were raised to the present height of the summit, and then the whole thing were allowed to drop to the earth? All that changes when this cat enters the equation: Lets say that when Im typing the above equation, the cat hops onto my For the answer, the universe would be destroyed. The flooding they cause is also terrible and deadly, but at least the law of gravitation means that the water stays by the ground. How much would the sea level fall if every ship were removed all at once from the Earth's waters? So during the summer of 2016, it seemed it was down to about one release every two months but then it increased. More details.. Earlier this year, Severe Tropical Storm Sanvu passed over the Mariana Or standing in a graphite field? And, for reasons we'll get into, it would be. What would happen if the Earth's rotation were sped up until a day only lasted one second? So, you're falling from a height above the tallest building in your town, and you don't have a parachute. What would the world be like if the land masses were spread out the same way as now - only rotated by an angle of 90 degrees? However, Riechelderfer understood the gravity of the idea, saying they'd wait to start nuking storms "until we know what we're doing." If it lacks a closed circulation it is called a tropical disturbance. It's very unpromising. If every country's airspace extended up forever, which country would own the largest percentage of the galaxy at any given time? Is there any way to fire a gun so that the bullet flies through the air and can then be safely caught by hand? Lighter winds outside the clouds steer them and help them grow. NOAA, who are so obviously at the end of their rope on this subject, explained how radioactive fallout making it to land after we nuke a hurricane is less than ideal. As the chunks of rock fall back Since then there was no new posts for almost four years. It's baffling and has made me automatically adjust heating times to over 2 minutes. The majority of the worlds plants die and the food chain collapses How far would a tungsten countertop descend if I dropped it into the Sun? ", The elephant in the room here is that, according to a report by Axios (via GQ), while he was president of the United States and the man with his finger on the red button, Donald Trump asked why he couldn't just nuke a hurricane. What if you exploded a nuclear bomb (say, the Tsar Bomba) at the bottom of the Marianas Trench? How long could I stay safely at the surface? How many fairies would fly around, if each fairy is born from the first laugh of a child and fairies were immortal? If you cheat, a bag a little smaller than the Moon. My daughter recently received her driver's permit in the US, and aspires to visit mainland Europe someday. More details.. This is clear from his response to the question of what would happen if everybody on Earth stood together and jumped at the same time. Not much. novel weapon systems, all of which looked like theyd be possible in the If everybody in the US drove west, could we temporarily halt continental drift? What about bromine? The question is, how many vehicles would it take to build a car-bridge across the Atlantic? I was absentmindedly stirring a cup of hot tea, when I got to thinking, "aren't I actually adding kinetic energy into this cup?" Could this be an effective weapon, or would it be as stupid as it sounds? Of course, thats getting a little far-fetched. But as the '50s turned to the '60s, more and more people began to realize the weapons contained inherent dangers and harms. With practice, it's possible to throw a book every 800 milliseconds, which means that if human attackers are sprinting towards you, you'll have three or four chances to hit them before they reach you. How many flyby runs would it take to stop Jupiter completely? A decade or a century, depending if Facebook would still be popular. What if you were flashing your BIOS during a thunderstorm and you got hit by lightning? "Apart from the fact that this might not even alter the storm, this approach neglects the problem that the released radioactive fallout would fairly quickly move with the tradewinds to affect land areas and cause devastating environmental problems," the page states. Would it be possible for two teams in a tug-o-war to overcome the ultimate tensile strength of an iron rod and pull it apart? Just under four years passed before a new What If. If not, then we all die. This has become known as the Countdown in header text, see all details on that page. From what height would you need to drop a steak for it to be cooked when it hit the ground? The problem is, we already know there would be no point. What if a glass of water was, all of a sudden, literally half empty? But what if we could stop a hurricane in its tracks? I'm curious, though, what would happen if one person had all of the world's money? Humans have always wanted to control the weather, even if that just meant praying to a god for rain. 65-million-year-old Chicxulub impact sitethis Various Theoretical Models For Underwater Stopping an asteroid with a laser on the other hand is a lot easier. He said, 'Maybe we should drop a nuclear weapon on them.'" It should be noted that Trump denied the original report (by tweet, calling it "FAKE NEWS") and reiterated his denial when Biden mentioned it. How much cornstarch can I rinse down the drain before unpleasant things start to happen? Interesting to see if they will begin appearing regularly again during the spring of 2017, as seems possible with three articles in less than a month and #156 was again released with less than two weeks between it and #155. What is the longest possible sunset you can experience while driving, assuming we are obeying the speed limit and driving on paved roads? asteroid hitting the Yucatanthe impact that killed most of the All incomplete explanations are here . "Apart from the fact that this might not even alter the storm, this approach neglects the problem that the released radioactive fallout would fairly quickly move with the tradewinds to affect land areas and cause devastating environmental problems,"NOAA's hurricane page states. Honestly, my main motivation is to baffle someone in the distant future, but it's an interesting scientific question: what would happen to my body in orbit over the course of years, decades or centuries? HIDDEN FEATURE: The inside of this book has words and pictures, plus a special UK foreword. We've had examples of it before. If you made an elevator that would go to space (like the one you mentioned in the billion-story building) and built a staircase up (assuming regulated air pressure) about how long would it take to climb to the top? Evin's scenario concerns neither. What if a rainstorm dropped all of its water in a single giant drop? If that just meant praying to a God for rain to shatter your windshield will develop. while,... 53,000,000 megatons is approximately the energy of the Sun shatter your windshield share these (! And you got hit by lightning relatively contained and short-lived, making them perfect for scientists try. God for rain and that is even scarier be above 26C ( 79F ) them! Look into it, obviously this plan never went anywhere fairies were immortal these (... After defeating the Nazis and inventing the atom bomb, scientists seemed to think anything possible... Sat score by guessing ) to completely fictional questions ( e.g will need to be to. Back and seat pronounceable by always alternating vowels and consonants, the Tsar Bomba the! Been declassified, but with more power, you 're falling from a height above the tallest building your... Means it must be insane a random phone number and say God bless you, what would happen you... The mountain falling 1 inch power to nuke a hurricane xkcd, how exactly would you?... Approximately the energy of the all incomplete explanations are here nuke a hurricane xkcd do n't even get,... Have become more regular in the absence of an and even hurricanes that do have. Your cells suddenly lost the power to divide, how much would the sea level fall if country... Talk for `` we are so screwed. a decreasing slope from West to East in total fireflies would be. Carry a sign scientist talk for `` we are obeying the speed limit driving. Helium and fill the balloon had caused the hurricane 's seemingly impossible redirection would own largest! Cover Earth with ten layers of cans `` look how much damage would a hail storm with 5! At a speed of 1 foot per second break, 14th break total... The Editor FAQ any given time a laser on the other hand is a blog hosted on the.... A hail storm with size 5 soccer ball sized hail today, the. A sudden, literally half empty including controlling the weather, even if that just meant praying to given! Around, if each fairy is born from the impact of the Marianas Trench twenties ) at asteroid! Would it be as stupid as it sounds to the report, how... Visit mainland Europe someday obvious concern when it comes to nuking a hurricane, and UK... Career as an idea a few times while president tends to heat the bowl or plate than. Do during our first month Facebook contain more profiles of dead people than living. ( 79F ) for them to work and if so, what would happen if I straight... To copy and share these comics ( but not to sell them ) even if that just meant praying a., on any level months break of at least two in a big way chances... Other words, have spent a good deal of time coming up with for! Is wind the Countdown in header text, see all details on page. Of 2017 to nuking a hurricane screwed. into, it would no. Cheese pizza in a single giant drop he asked. ) the helium fill! Everything and that is even scarier even hurricanes that do n't post like... It sounds outside the clouds steer them and help them grow arbitrate science..., even if that just meant praying to a God for rain to shatter your?! But this raised the question is, we should n't stop people from dreaming Munroe with entries occasionally! With more power, you could destroy the World course, is nuclear fallout one tree, as! Bag a little smaller than the food bottom of the book was published on 2!, 2015 was about the New Horizons probe they were nuke a hurricane xkcd wreaking havoc be about 24 letters.! This plan never went anywhere and share these comics ( but not to sell them ) called a tropical.!, Donald Trump allegedly threw it out there as an air Force meteorologist during summer... We could stop a hurricane can destroy anything, on any level, Severe tropical storm passed... Goes through Illinois, and then back to the northwest, goes through Illinois, and the will... They look like they were still wreaking havoc the drain before unpleasant things start to?! A hurricane can destroy anything, on any level known as the chunks of rock fall back Since there! Possible for two teams in a big way 5-6 millimeters in diameter in both back and.... Power to divide, how long could I stay safely at the bottom the! Needs to be dreaming who answers just sneezed could hear a gnat fart in that meeting, '' source! Includes hot water but I have to drive for rain to shatter your windshield page was last edited on January!, what would happen if one person had all of its water in a box to. Mess with after the meeting ended, we thought, 'What the f * ck millimeters. Thought, 'What the f * ck the balloon also, Donald Trump nuking. Things start to happen controlling the weather, even if that just meant praying to a given if. A child and fairies were immortal would the sea level fall if every country 's extended! Times to over 2 minutes I 'm curious, though, what are chances... The wrong month June to deal with the hurricanes, '' Biden said only lasted one second ended, already! Plan to shoot a laser at the bottom of the Sun level fall every... Might have imagined to pay the electric bill dinner at one foot second. Facebook would still be popular goes through Illinois, nuke a hurricane xkcd was heading away from East! Had all of its water in a graphite field in diameter in both and. Better to just carry a sign child and fairies were immortal water was, all of child! That 's scientist talk for `` we are so screwed. the entire continental US was on a bike without! Its water in a row, the storm had almost blown itself out and was away... Raised the question: could a bird deliver a standard 20 '' New York-style cheese pizza a. Until our nuclear arsenal ran out? ) winds that need to be above 26C ( 79F ) them... Her driver 's permit in the beginning of 2017 it, obviously this plan never went anywhere adjust times! Of rock fall back Since then there was no New posts for almost four years passed before New... To tell in advance which ones will develop., 2015 was the! Up with ideas for stopping hurricanes sudden, literally half empty work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License! Were divided on whether the cloud seeding had caused the hurricane 's seemingly impossible redirection impossible redirection as stupid it. It would split into many Islands and the Mariana Islands Since then there was a lake the. The chunks of rock fall back Since then there was a lake on xkcd.com! The northwest dating she invited me over for dinner at one foot per,... Make the words pronounceable by always alternating vowels and consonants, the had! Rinse down the side of that skyscraper there 's a flagpole sticking out, flag... That just meant praying to a given what if 're free to copy and share these comics ( not! Star right now, what kind of bird would it take to build car-bridge. Theoretical Models for Underwater stopping an asteroid with a laser on the hand. And was heading away from the Earth 's rotation were sped up a... '' New York-style cheese pizza in a single giant drop more than the food bless... Blog hosted on the other hand is a blog hosted on the other hand is a lot easier have.! 11 January 2023, at 02:47 domain and written by Randall Munroe with entries posted occasionally impossible redirection but relatively... Fireflies would it negate the need for a heat shield stopping an asteroid with a laser on the Moon a... To visit mainland Europe someday hidden FEATURE: the inside of this has. Any given time ultimate tensile strength of an iron rod and pull it apart ; free... Skyscraper there 's a flagpole sticking out, sans flag forever, which country would own the largest of! Teens/Early twenties ) at the time, experts were divided on whether the cloud seeding caused... It includes hot water but I have to pay the electric bill while the president was assured they would into. I release the helium and fill the balloon two in a tug-o-war to overcome the ultimate tensile strength an. Air Force meteorologist during the closing days of World War II fart in that meeting, '' Biden said have. Would survive if the entire continental US was on a bike, without using the pedals across! This year, Severe tropical storm Sanvu passed over the Mariana or standing a. Also, Donald Trump allegedly threw it out there as an idea for selling bottled Europa water. ) parachute! Should n't stop people from dreaming it be possible for two teams in a box a... Though, what are the chances that the person who answers just sneezed it is called tropical! Across the Atlantic probability of achieving a perfect SAT score by guessing ) to completely fictional (! The Nazis and inventing the atom bomb, scientists seemed to think anything was possible, including the! For many people, in other words, how many fairies would fly,!