Bloke down the pub...
...was adamant that global warming was due to Nuclear bombs being tested and the force of such had pushed the Earth closer to the Sun.
(onemunki Down there for dancing, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 12:46, 15 replies)

I was once shown an interesting document by a conspiracy theorist
of a study someone had done on the impact of nuclear weaponary on the earth's orbit, that concluded that setting off several would indeed knock us of our current axis and orbit and be the end of the world as we would either fly off into space or be fired into the sun.

I have no idea how well it was researched or how accurate it was, but it seemed like a potentially plausible theory.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 12:50, closed)

I think the sheer number and size of the nukes involved would make no difference to the planet, apart from wiping out all life. I'm no mathmatician but i'm sure it has something to do with mass and the rotational speed of the earth coupled with it's orbital speed. I think you'd need something like Mars to hit us to make a dent. Still it was down the pub and bloke would not have it any other way. I think there was a Sci Fi film in the 60's that put the idea forward.
(onemunki Down there for dancing, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 13:11, closed)

Yes that's right there was!
Yes - don't they set off another bunch on the other side in order to correct it, or something?
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 13:19, closed)

Yes then they begin an interstellar game of pool finally
potting Venus with Uranus
(onemunki Down there for dancing, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 13:21, closed)

"The day the Earth caught fire"
www.imdb.com/title/tt0054790/
( P-MONKE We're all fucked, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 15:55, closed)

Problem with this is that you gotta go chucking mass in the other direction
to bugger about with the orbit. As far as I know there isn't a weapon on the planet large enough to achieve this.

And I'm shit at physics.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 13:25, closed)

That's about the size of it.
It's also why Space 1999 was shit for anybody with a basic grasp of mechanics.
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 13:51, closed)

I could never understand
the premis of Space 1999 especially the speed at which the moon should of been travelling to have encountered Alien worlds. Or did I miss the one where they'd been asleep for 10,000 years or fallen through a wormhole.
(onemunki Down there for dancing, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 13:56, closed)

The premise was "lalalala we're not listening to all your dreary physics just be thankful the actors aren't fucking puppets".

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 14:00, closed)

Isn't that the premise for all Hollywood action films?

( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 15:27, closed)

I rationalise like this.
The Japan quake tilted the Earth's axis by about 17 cm, and speeded up the spin by an infinitesimal amount, but made no difference to it's orbit. The amount of energy released during the quake makes nuclear weapons look like an AA battery, therefore bloke down the pub was talking shit.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 15:45, closed)

The Earth is essentially a closed system
so, unless the nukes eject material that escapes our gravitational field to create a reaction mass, they will have no effect on the orbit.
The Japanese earthquake would (probably) have influenced our rotational axis due to the redistribution of the mass of the Earth i.e. changing the shape of the planet. A tiny bit.
( P-MONKE We're all fucked, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 16:00, closed)

i think they do most nuclear tests during the day
so if anything we'd be pushed further away from the sun, cos if you do them at night you wouldn't be able to see the big flash and devastation as well
(Quintno EXPERIMENT RUINED CANCELLED, LEFT 4EVER, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 17:00, closed)

I like the way you think ;)

( P-MONKE We're all fucked, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 17:14, closed)

Found some physics
Kinetic energy = 1/2 mass x velocity²

Kinetic energy = 1/2 (5.9736×10^24 kg) (12300 m/s)²

Kinetic energy = 4.52x10^32 J

In terms of Megatons of TNT, that's about 1.08x10^17 Megatons. The biggest nuclear weapon ever designed had a maximum theoretical yield of 100 Megatons, so it would take about 1 QUADRILLION bombs. That's more than one hundred fifty thousand 100-Megaton bombs for every man, woman, and child alive today. Needless to say, the world's nuclear arsenal isn't anywhere near that size. Even if we DID have that many bombs, and if we COULD get them all into one place and cause them to blow up perfectly (without having ANY of them vaporized before they detonate...a technical impossibility), you'd still need to have ALL of their energy go into moving the Earth. In reality, that simply won't happen. That 1 quadrillion bombs is a very, very low estimate of how much firepower you would actually need to knock the Earth out of the solar system.
(onemunki Down there for dancing, Mon 23 Jan 2012, 17:24, closed)