Totall Recall
Er.
[Minor Spoiler (click me if you dare)]
OK, so back of napkin calcuation. How much wind resistance would you encounter if you stuck your head out of the window of a car doing 27,500 miles per hour?
No, I did not slip a zero in there.
The elevator at the center of the story is unambiguously explained.
Diameter of Earth: 7800 miles, Reported travel time: 17 minutes.
That's Mach 36, or 1 1/2x the speed of a space shuttle re-entry (you know, where it glows cherry red from friction?).
They're climbing on the outside of it. They climb on top of it. 27,500mph. No vacuumed tunnel, no nothing.
Nitpicking? I dunno. That's a factor of about 100 from plausibility.
Would it be nitpicking if, central to the story of Gallipoli, the foot race occurred at 1,500mph (a 100 yard dash taking 1/10second)?
Would it be nitpicking if, central to the story of Smokey & the Bandit, the car chase occurred at 10,000mph (doing their 1,800 mile run in 20 minutes)?
[Minor Spoiler (click me if you dare)]
OK, so back of napkin calcuation. How much wind resistance would you encounter if you stuck your head out of the window of a car doing 27,500 miles per hour?
No, I did not slip a zero in there.
The elevator at the center of the story is unambiguously explained.
Diameter of Earth: 7800 miles, Reported travel time: 17 minutes.
That's Mach 36, or 1 1/2x the speed of a space shuttle re-entry (you know, where it glows cherry red from friction?).
They're climbing on the outside of it. They climb on top of it. 27,500mph. No vacuumed tunnel, no nothing.
Nitpicking? I dunno. That's a factor of about 100 from plausibility.
Would it be nitpicking if, central to the story of Gallipoli, the foot race occurred at 1,500mph (a 100 yard dash taking 1/10second)?
Would it be nitpicking if, central to the story of Smokey & the Bandit, the car chase occurred at 10,000mph (doing their 1,800 mile run in 20 minutes)?