Ryan, The Scientific Dreamer
I was drifting a bit this morning due to my damnable medications. I usually wake right up, once mum gives me my Aderall, which helps me with my A.D.D. Last night, however, I took my Seroquil (most hated…FUCKIN’EVER.) a bit later than usual, which is fine; it’s just a real bugger to wake up on the morn. ANYHOW, so I’m drifting and my mind usually goes into psychotic overdrive around this time; half awake, half asleep. I think about huge black rats as compared to small white mice and what their physical differences and mental capacities are.
My mind moves on.
I begin thinking about what would happen if the Earth’s gravitational pull increased 10 lbs. I was thinking that everything would become ten pounds heavier, which would have catastrophic consequences on smaller organisms, but would barely effect a mountain. In reality, this would never happen, it would have to be ten PERCENT heavier for everything in proportion to the weight we’re currently familiar with instead of ten pounds, and this is why:
Gravity is a function of the attraction of two objects that have mass. The amount of pull between two objects is important. You weigh a certain amount on this Earth, 100 miles away however, you weigh less because the square of the distance between the center of the Earth and you would be greater. Astronauts therefore become weightless because they are far enough away from the Earth’s gravitational pull that it does not effect them. The Earth and the Moon have great mass and they both have a like gravitational pull towards one another. Consider the mass of the Earth and the mass of you, both objects have mass and gravitational pull, therefore they attract one another.
Two propositions in which this catastrophe would occur:
A.) The Earth would have to be more massive. According to the Laws of Physics, if the Earth were more massive, we’ll say, twice as much, then the gravitational pull upon humans would be twice as heavy.
B.) The Earth’s diameter would need to be reduced, which would increase the density, but the mass would stay constant.
Just for shits and giggles, let’s consider the consequences of my earlier rationalization; that is, of course, that everything would gain the same amount of weight. Being ten pounds heavier wouldn’t sound so bad, but imagine the dire effects it would have upon smaller organisms. Many small creatures would become extinct, such as birds (perhaps not penguins) because their tiny bodies wouldn’t be able to carry those ten extra pounds. Other important organisms such as bacteria would die. You may not deem this dire, but consider the carnivores that live off of birds, they would certainly dies, along with the carnivores that feed off the smaller carnivores. Basically, we’d be far more fucked than one would initially assume.
Here’s a list of what would potentially transpire if everything gained ten PERCENT more weight:
-Earthquakes would erupt, avalanches, ice burgs breaking off causing the earths water level to rise temporarily.
- The tides would be lower and their changes less significant because the Moon would have less influence.
-Trees would have trouble initially, but would quickly adapt to this, due to their rapid evolutionary qualities.
-Forest would be altered eventually trees would adapt.
-Everyday activities would be more strenuous, forcing animals to exercise and human sports to be significantly harder.
-Atmosphere would become thinner. Our atmosphere is attracted to the Earth, its attraction would be heavier, thus, effecting global warming and U.V. radiation.
There would still be many unanticipated consequences, but those, of course, would be unanticipated…I of course would have no idea then. This would be a catastrophic event, but many organisms would accommodate themselves to the changes All in all we’d be royally fucked, and I would laugh because I fuckin’ called this shit.
:)
My mind moves on.
I begin thinking about what would happen if the Earth’s gravitational pull increased 10 lbs. I was thinking that everything would become ten pounds heavier, which would have catastrophic consequences on smaller organisms, but would barely effect a mountain. In reality, this would never happen, it would have to be ten PERCENT heavier for everything in proportion to the weight we’re currently familiar with instead of ten pounds, and this is why:
Gravity is a function of the attraction of two objects that have mass. The amount of pull between two objects is important. You weigh a certain amount on this Earth, 100 miles away however, you weigh less because the square of the distance between the center of the Earth and you would be greater. Astronauts therefore become weightless because they are far enough away from the Earth’s gravitational pull that it does not effect them. The Earth and the Moon have great mass and they both have a like gravitational pull towards one another. Consider the mass of the Earth and the mass of you, both objects have mass and gravitational pull, therefore they attract one another.
Two propositions in which this catastrophe would occur:
A.) The Earth would have to be more massive. According to the Laws of Physics, if the Earth were more massive, we’ll say, twice as much, then the gravitational pull upon humans would be twice as heavy.
B.) The Earth’s diameter would need to be reduced, which would increase the density, but the mass would stay constant.
Just for shits and giggles, let’s consider the consequences of my earlier rationalization; that is, of course, that everything would gain the same amount of weight. Being ten pounds heavier wouldn’t sound so bad, but imagine the dire effects it would have upon smaller organisms. Many small creatures would become extinct, such as birds (perhaps not penguins) because their tiny bodies wouldn’t be able to carry those ten extra pounds. Other important organisms such as bacteria would die. You may not deem this dire, but consider the carnivores that live off of birds, they would certainly dies, along with the carnivores that feed off the smaller carnivores. Basically, we’d be far more fucked than one would initially assume.
Here’s a list of what would potentially transpire if everything gained ten PERCENT more weight:
-Earthquakes would erupt, avalanches, ice burgs breaking off causing the earths water level to rise temporarily.
- The tides would be lower and their changes less significant because the Moon would have less influence.
-Trees would have trouble initially, but would quickly adapt to this, due to their rapid evolutionary qualities.
-Forest would be altered eventually trees would adapt.
-Everyday activities would be more strenuous, forcing animals to exercise and human sports to be significantly harder.
-Atmosphere would become thinner. Our atmosphere is attracted to the Earth, its attraction would be heavier, thus, effecting global warming and U.V. radiation.
There would still be many unanticipated consequences, but those, of course, would be unanticipated…I of course would have no idea then. This would be a catastrophic event, but many organisms would accommodate themselves to the changes All in all we’d be royally fucked, and I would laugh because I fuckin’ called this shit.
:)