this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
36 points (87.5% liked)

Showerthoughts

29525 readers
800 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

Rules

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
all 21 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh, the first time I read this I had a completely wrong idea what it was about. I thought it was talking about like the Dalai Lama having being reincarnated or something.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Same. I was wondering how we count the number of people who claim to have been reincarnated.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No one has gone far enough from earth to not be influenced by its gravity. Therefore anyone who has jumped into the air has been off the earth.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nothing is far enough from Earth to not be influenced by it's gravity, since gravitational interaction has infinite range. Even though it weakens over distance, it never reaches zero

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Technically correct but there is a reason why people talk about a body’s sphere of influence.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

More like 24. Low Earth Orbit is just hanging out in the porch. :)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's under a thousand isn't it? :P

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But how many people have escaped the influence of Earths gravity altogether? None?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Right. The farthest people have been is the Moon, which is still gravitationally bound to the Earth. Plenty of spacecraft have been out of Earth's gravity well, and also a car, but no humans.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What do you mean? I thought the car had an astronaut suit in the drivers seat containing the dessicated corpse of the real Elon Musk, after being murdered, memory-absorbed, and doppelganger-ed by the current version.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

If that were the case the current version would have a goatee.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

You would never escape the influence of Earth's gravity, as far as I know.

From what I understand everything in the universe has a slight gravitational effect no matter the distance, it's just that the effect get infinitesimally small, but never reaching zero.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is the reason why theoretical physicists and engineers rarely have fun together at parties.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I knew as soon as I typed this that someone would bring this up. 😵‍💫