A while ago I talked about what I thought gravity might be like with a flat thing on a spherical Earth, but today I discovered on Vsauce what it might be like to live on a flat earth.
As long as it was thick enough to have some gravity, as you approach the edge, the amount of Earth behind you would add a stack of gravity. The closer you get to the edge, the more it would be pulling you back to the centre. So a bit like the billiard table I described, a ball dropped anywhere on the surface would roll back into the centre. The closer you get to the edge, the more gravity you would feel, and the more it would be attracting you toward the centre of the disk. So it would feel like you were walking uphill, AND there would be more gravity.
But my new favourite bit is what would happen when you actually managed to climb up to the edge of this flat Earth.
Nothing special.
You could just keep walking to the other side. You would step over the rim and just keep strolling along the thickness of it. The gravity would be strong, but at least you wouldnt be walking uphill any more. Once you got to the edge of the other side, you could step over it onto a downwards slope and walk to the centre.
In fact other than the centres of each side, the thickness bit (the bit that looks like the surface of a tire that touches the road) would be the best place to live and ride bikes because it would be so nice and flat.
I feel slightly safer.
120 Things in 20 years would dig a hole through at the centre so everyone could enjoy zero gravity.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
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