0:04

welcome to dear hank, and john, or

0:07

as i like to think of it randall and

0:09

hank it's a podcast for two brothers and

0:11

a friend answer your questions,

0:13

give you to be suffice and bring you other week's news from

0:16

both mars and afc wimbledon it

0:18

today sorry, i have sell a dad

0:20

a my dad is, the you know physics

0:22

and

0:24

biology broken up? know

0:26

why?

0:28

cuz

0:28

there was no chemistry do

0:30

one has to say

0:32

that there's plots lots of chemist biology

0:35

but there isn't really any and physics

0:38

you know it it is physical chemistry

0:40

is just sort of the scariest type of physics

0:43

so i yeah i took that class

0:45

i was just i was just whining about that classes

0:48

of forty two year old man twenty

0:50

years later i was whining about

0:52

that class anything that exists on the boundary

0:54

between those you know the major

0:56

branches of science it's always harder than

0:59

if he has one of the things that it shares

1:01

it's it's

1:03

it's it's like nobody knows what to do knows

1:06

their life the there's

1:08

no one is specializing in this so we haven't figured

1:10

out how to to but it's the all the same

1:12

thing randall as you

1:14

i'm sure now

1:16

that thing is

1:18

science

1:20

yeah why i guess it's also i guess it's all particles

1:23

yeah or or

1:25

you know waves or

1:27

some kind of complicated

1:29

construct that we the amplify

1:31

into wonder what one of one

1:33

of the other these models right into the idea

1:36

of particles nice it's all fields doing field

1:38

stuff to each other and we don't know why there's

1:40

gauges in there somewhere i

1:42

didn't know about those certainly the yeah

1:44

i have on your sunday know more about those listeners

1:47

sensors i'm sure you know probably some

1:49

cancers and running around somewhere ah

1:52

definitely factors yeah i'll vote for circulars

1:56

ah so randall if you don't know

1:58

i has been making a comic

2:00

on the internet called xkcd since

2:02

two thousand five

2:05

five five k okay wow look

2:07

at me but , was a fan

2:10

of and have been a fan of a for the whole

2:12

time i mean it it's it's it's legendary

2:14

it's as a person who creates on the

2:16

internet generally it's a

2:19

great to see somebody who's careful and good

2:21

at being a creator on the internet and as

2:23

a person who does science medication specifically

2:26

it's it's kind of

2:28

a bit of a honor to be here

2:30

with you i was just

2:33

talking to the bogey who is our editorial assistant

2:35

in helps with you know collecting

2:38

questions and doing research to

2:40

figure out if we can train answer them and she

2:42

was in her we were in the little doc

2:44

together and she saw your icon and she was like why is

2:47

randall munroe and my publishing up my terrible

2:49

research notes so, that's the, that's

2:51

the, the slot of world that you exist

2:54

inside of you make people

2:56

nervous when you're inside of their research notes no,

2:58

i mean well, you know you shut up in my research

3:00

notes, i don't think i've mentioned in the sense

3:03

that sometimes i'll get a question and i'll think

3:05

oh you know this is a weird but it's really

3:08

and i can see a way that

3:10

i can do a deep dive into this we know

3:12

will will involve so much of

3:14

heavy duty research that i feel

3:16

probably no one has devoted that

3:19

much energy to this question before, but,

3:21

you know a google around to see if anyone else ever tackled

3:23

this and then occasionally one

3:25

your videos will come up any in like you

3:27

90 seconds or 30 seconds, you'll

3:30

run through what i know

3:32

must have been about two, you

3:34

know, two or three hours of research and

3:37

you know very careful calculation i'm like oh

3:39

man he's doing the thing i was in a zu dem

3:42

our as well as a i probably

3:44

only doing the thing you're gonna do because you

3:46

taught me how to do it by giving up for know anna

3:48

and but i i was honestly

3:50

kind of appreciate it because i'm excited

3:53

for where what's fun about these

3:55

things are getting to the answer and when i discover

3:57

someone i'll miss has that has

3:59

the

3:59

me and found the answer i'm just excited

4:02

and then officially ended when they presented in

4:04

a fun way like you do what randall

4:06

as real as a book out it's called what

4:08

if to it's the sequel i

4:11

guess of a kind to what is the

4:13

first what f in which ah

4:15

a serious scientific answers are given to

4:17

absurd have the questions and

4:20

it's an absolute delight absolute delight

4:22

it's it's like the coolest way to learn

4:25

how the world actually works you

4:27

do i can see a tremendous amount

4:29

of work going into so not every question

4:32

but a huge number of the questions

4:35

or , really delightfully put together

4:37

so that some of the questions really though deep

4:39

some of the questions you go less steep some of the questions

4:42

you don't go deep at all and so

4:44

for example for dylan wrote to you

4:46

and the some be a first class married to married mix of questions

4:48

from the book from people who set of questions

4:51

ah it or and and or suburban

4:53

start with one from dilemma that was written

4:56

to you what would happen

4:58

if the earth's rotation where sped up until

5:00

the day only lasted one second still kind

5:02

of question that we would get onto your hank and john but

5:04

you have done a lot of research into what

5:07

would actually happen ah and i couldn't

5:09

tell you i couldn't tell you that so

5:11

my first from it's like my head space goes to

5:13

first of all that's going to be enough

5:16

a possible to do but was just assume

5:18

that it's possible will i end

5:20

up still on the planet the

5:23

you'll be there for at least a few

5:26

seconds

5:27

huh

5:29

what were your okay tell

5:31

me how to how do i die well

5:34

the the earth the earth is i'm

5:37

spinning and if

5:39

you me it's been ripped out right now it's spinning

5:41

ah at a speed were

5:44

it does not tear itself apart yeah it's

5:46

one of my own of that one of my favorite things about this planet

5:48

it remains and you know roughly the same

5:50

shape but most the time somebody is

5:52

bugging out a little in the middle like

5:55

around the equator it and of pancakes

5:57

out because it's spinning and that

6:00

the center of ago force or intrepid

6:02

all acceleration or however you know the

6:04

ah as if he or is it hadn't been doing

6:07

other issue apps yeah i'm

6:09

it it leads to the middle part of the earth

6:11

being flung outward and

6:13

and so that's why for example you

6:16

way you know maybe a up

6:18

to a pound less if

6:20

you go down to the equator than if you're at the polls

6:23

here's a being pulled away by the

6:25

speed that you are traveling yes there are the

6:27

two different effects there's with because the earth

6:29

is spinning it's flings you outward so

6:31

you're being flung away from the earth a little bit

6:33

and then cancelled some of your weight and because

6:36

the earth is kind of pancakes if you're farther from the

6:38

center of the ah yes this

6:40

is why than ever but seek of mattress

6:42

is not the farthest thing from the center of

6:44

the earth right right the i'm there

6:46

are some mountains in the andes that are that

6:49

our this from the earth's axis and

6:51

from the the center by

6:54

their on the bulge yeah and so

6:56

the the problem is if is the right

6:58

now it takes i'm late can

7:00

circle the equator if you built you know a tube

7:02

around the equator with mirrors i could

7:05

certainly equator and you know about about

7:07

seven times in a second which

7:09

means that the earth is spinning fast enough the each

7:11

day lasts one seconds and

7:13

it's really fast yes it means that the

7:16

equator would be moving at about

7:18

you know a little over ten percent of the speed of

7:20

light okay yeah that

7:22

that definitely that puts it into some contest

7:25

that says yes of right now as planets

7:27

not gonna hold itself together yes a right

7:29

now gravity is the if you're sick

7:31

if i go and stand on the equator gravity

7:33

is maybe a hundred times stronger

7:36

you know are a little more it a hundred times stronger

7:38

than the first trying to fling me outward if

7:41

you speed up the earth from the current you know it's

7:43

about a thousand miles an hour up to the speed

7:45

of light out as a lot more digits in it gravity

7:49

is no longer even a fact stuff

7:52

it you might have been a part of the equation

7:54

right exactly it's was it as like out that the

7:57

the number of digits in the in the forces

7:59

from the the rotation in a serial

8:01

force have so many more digits than the gravity

8:03

numbers the like well i know i can ignore those just from

8:05

looking at how big the numbers are and

8:07

so you yeah you can work out that like you

8:10

and everything around you would be flung outward and

8:12

because the other stuff around you

8:14

would be flung outward at the same speed you

8:16

were right you might actually survive

8:18

for a few you know millisecond

8:21

you v c d to have a bunch of the the air

8:23

would come with you the ground would

8:25

can with you and

8:27

so the the ground you know

8:29

it as the midsection of the earth starts

8:31

to spread apart it would have

8:34

to break apart what you would end up probably doing

8:36

a unevenly so you'd have the ground

8:38

right you know fragmenting around you

8:40

right get it get yourself a really solid piece

8:42

aground the may be can stick he

8:45

could stick with yeah hold on to an end

8:47

because like yours the scenario

8:49

where we're sort of waving a magic wand and speeding up

8:51

the air you are being kind

8:53

of magically sped up by the by the hypothetical

8:56

we're assuming that that and happens and then

8:58

from then on were gonna let physics take over

9:00

and see what happens then from your point

9:02

of view the problem isn't so much that

9:04

you're spinning because you're not spending

9:06

anymore you're moving in a straight line

9:09

away from out of the earth

9:11

here along the direction that the

9:15

the that the earth was traveling or

9:17

i thought that your chunk of the earth was traveling though

9:20

but i but i'm not like shooting through

9:22

anything know because honor his us

9:24

is shooting with me as so the question is like

9:27

so that's not gonna kill me at what point does

9:30

the stresses being put on the

9:32

stuff around you hi the adjacent

9:35

are parts of the earth that are shooting off

9:37

in a slightly different direction at one point

9:39

and and stresses are causing

9:41

problems while also the app

9:43

like airs going to be a promise and a push on itself

9:45

it's gonna push it certainly is gonna the

9:48

air will eventually get low enough pressure they will be

9:50

able to berea and it it'll is that won't be anything

9:52

holding up their it'll only take about a second

9:54

or so for the air you know around

9:57

you to have spread

9:59

out enough it's it's spreading

10:01

out and pan kicking outward the same way as the earth

10:03

into this man exist within

10:05

about about or so the air would be to him

10:07

to thing for you to breeze that's

10:09

and that's like else probably not i

10:12

think oh i

10:14

think that you would probably

10:16

not last long enough

10:18

to asphyxiate okay it

10:20

okay it depend a little bit on exactly what

10:22

happens with what pieces of the crust around

10:24

you you think i'm gonna get hit by

10:27

something you know i'm

10:29

not sure honey

10:31

of anything moving a ten percent of the speed of light so

10:33

any interaction become such a huge problem

10:36

so ah when the earth

10:38

starts expanding outward the first

10:40

thing we encounter that's not part of the earth

10:42

you know not part of our scenario here is

10:45

, got all those satellites

10:47

around us so

10:50

the expanding earth would be

10:52

nicely lined up we've got a whole ring of geostationary

10:54

satellites around us and it would only

10:56

take about a second or so for the disc to

10:58

reach that belt of geostationary satellites

11:01

and i'm not gonna get hit by a satellite

11:03

but probably somebody is and definitely

11:05

some seeing as yeah and so like once

11:07

the satellites hit the expanding as

11:10

of the atmosphere you know they'll

11:12

be they'll be vaporized i think about forty milliseconds

11:15

into the scenario is about when the iss

11:18

will get hit it'll be one of the first

11:20

his quick pretty the out yeah yeah and

11:22

idea from that there will be a blast of you know

11:25

gamma rays and i it'll be sort of like i

11:27

like a nuclear bomb going off so

11:29

right and every every single satellite

11:32

that we hit as another nuclear yeah and so

11:34

you're you're surrounded by a lot

11:36

of exciting says acts happening all at once

11:38

yes and which is never where you want to be

11:40

exactly you wanna injured

11:43

in general and physics you want to try to

11:45

place yourself when you have a thing is doing

11:47

the whole says except you want to be on the other

11:49

side of the thing where the yes from where the

11:51

physics or how the p b s you say this

11:53

in the but this is of one of the main rivals

11:55

of sciences be on this side

11:57

where the interesting physics isn't happened

12:00

you got a laser and there's like the handgrip

12:02

with the battery and then there's the end with nicer and

12:04

you stay on the handgrip side and let

12:06

the lasers stuff happen out on the other

12:08

side yeah and that's also what

12:10

is so a so what i would want

12:12

to be in this situation is directly on

12:14

the north pole i'd still die but maybe

12:16

a little less fat yeah right it's

12:19

and i'd have to wait for all those nuclear

12:21

explosions to get him here and read the north

12:23

pole you know you're still part of the serious the serious you

12:25

are pure a wedding once a second

12:28

yes but i think pirouetting once a second

12:30

to survive i could do that yeah i

12:32

although ice or as i say that i'm thinking

12:35

i haven't actually tried to pure wouldn't

12:37

once the second maybe that's faster

12:39

than it sounds it's absolutely

12:41

right anyone who does i always listening to this

12:43

is gonna be like oh boy years

12:46

after the tigers never you're gonna go try that you're

12:48

gonna find ah yes this is that will

12:50

do my eyes stay in my body or not yes

12:53

i said my cable internet there's a speed

12:55

at which you can pirouetted and it does it does

12:57

become a health problem this

12:59

if you let your arms swing outward

13:01

and oh yeah you gotta yeah definitely recommend

13:03

your license yeah ah

13:07

i wouldn't

13:08

and it's like this every

13:09

question before you think that

13:12

this isn't going to be that interesting and then it

13:14

turns out ah that it's it is

13:16

in fact amazingly interesting word i do a question

13:18

from from one of our listeners

13:21

now listen to some same who sent

13:23

this back in february ah but we searched

13:25

the in bucks for a particular

13:27

string to see if anybody asks questions

13:30

that may be would end in

13:32

thought the way the chains dead p

13:34

s it would be super cool of your team that a collaboration

13:36

with randall munroe on a complicated

13:39

science questions submission since he's going

13:41

to be promoting what is too soon the

13:43

regime no

13:46

i don't but i really feel like he's on your team

13:48

as yeah but yeah for sure i'm

13:50

no thanks to the thanks for the plugs answer

13:53

i guess making all of this happen so

13:56

here's what happens so we're now going to do see

13:58

what happens when we apply hi these

14:01

skills to a question randall

14:03

has never heard before it

14:05

is dear hank and randolph what

14:07

s there was there was volcano a few

14:09

months away from eruptions and a large

14:11

asteroid struck that exact spot

14:14

the game though this is

14:16

a problem because it's geology

14:19

ah which is neither of

14:21

our areas of expertise but

14:23

in the in the vein of how i think what

14:25

if would answer this question i

14:27

probably would be one of the shorter answers and it would

14:29

probably be nothing good

14:31

sense yeah i think that's a safe

14:33

bet i don't know is

14:35

i think that's an interesting one because

14:38

the people really often

14:41

like when you have these big forces interacting

14:43

with each other people the

14:45

it's like will either wanna play

14:47

them off each other the war you

14:51

know like use one of them to stop the other or ask

14:53

one of the magnify the other and the right

14:55

it's sometimes it's not i was clear which athena

14:57

because people there's actually a page

14:59

on the other the national oceanographic and atmospheric

15:02

administration's website about

15:05

answering , question like he i don't we

15:07

newkirk hands and yeah and

15:09

yep as this is not great yeah we're

15:11

here but we're here yeah and and

15:13

you know and and they've had that for a long time which i

15:15

know because i i on if he'd

15:17

frequently and of course the training as the people's the

15:21

and the answer is hurricanes or the

15:23

first sensors just like know that's bad for

15:25

the reasons you think like yeah

15:27

let's not you're like yeah amounts of radiation into

15:30

a whirlwind like yes but

15:32

it's also bad like the hurricanes are

15:34

powered by the heat of the ocean

15:37

certain and causing air to gain

15:39

energy and rise and then it can

15:41

dances and and that

15:43

process like transports heat

15:45

energy from the ocean surface into the atmosphere

15:48

which creates a hurricane then

15:51

you're like i think what this problem needs is more heat

15:53

energy to sublet we need to get the hottest

15:55

thing we can do as humans yeah

15:57

and and put that in the yeah exactly and

15:59

so blake know that that would if

16:01

anything probably make it worse but

16:04

people will assess is like okay you have a volcano

16:06

about her and we use a nuclear

16:08

weapon to seal it off in

16:11

some way and once again

16:14

like that we idea were thinking like what's the

16:16

what's the most powerful thing we have why

16:19

don't we threw that at the problem yet

16:21

an end and whether you're trying to trigger

16:23

the volcano or stop the volcano

16:26

it's sort of feels like what are you doing since

16:29

the , what i mean in one thing

16:32

that we are not good at understanding is how powerful

16:34

the ursus yeah the amount

16:36

of energy inside of the earth were

16:38

very lucky to have a fairly steep

16:41

well lucky we wouldn't exist otherwise to have

16:43

a stable spike plate tectonics like

16:45

it's stable enough that it

16:47

is and constantly messing with the atmosphere

16:50

and throwing things into completely the like

16:52

disarray but not so stable

16:54

that we have a locked planet the doesn't have

16:57

any cycling of minerals and stuff

16:59

because we can do this fun plate tectonics

17:01

thing where none of the minerals on earth

17:03

have been around the whole time yeah annual

17:05

events such as i like i like

17:08

learning about things that earth has that no one

17:10

else has you know in life is the bag why not

17:12

you know as far know we go but i go

17:14

but plate tectonic yeah

17:17

it's not over moons that kind of have for

17:19

yeah you can't their eyes moving around

17:21

as i would you want to have a fight over whether

17:23

isis iraq because this happened to me recently

17:25

with geologist oh them

17:28

know i'm i'm i'm enthusiastic

17:30

about embracing whatever

17:32

definition is more funny at the time a

17:37

full common into this kind

17:40

of enlightenment after many years of

17:42

being kind of pedantic about terminology and

17:44

thinking too soon too be clear about what

17:46

we what we mean and mean and and

17:48

of embrace the the fact that like okay everyone

17:50

is on different pages about what things mean and we

17:52

do our best to like fret come up with com

17:54

and definitions but there's also a certain amount of meat

17:56

meeting other people were they are and

17:59

you so i think you have

17:59

to embrace ambiguity and some uncertainty

18:03

absolutely i entirely agree and

18:05

also i don't care how you suggests it's

18:08

so is that the ass i

18:10

think that said that big him of asteroids

18:13

maybe make the thing happen a little earlier

18:16

but the if the earth is gonna do a super volcano

18:19

it's gonna happen and it's gonna be bad

18:21

like the at the amount the the mass

18:23

of crust that has to be listed

18:26

to do a super volcano

18:29

probably bigger than the massive crust

18:31

that has ever been ejected by

18:34

after

18:35

they leave at least since like billie heavy

18:37

bombardment yeah yeah the evidence

18:40

that would be my guess yeah i know i think that's

18:42

i think that's right

18:44

the reason that i'm i feel pretty confident

18:47

that the asteroid could

18:49

trigger a super like interruption or you know could

18:51

could trigger this kind of thing is that often

18:54

this is what triggers volcanic eruptions

18:56

not an asteroid but i'm

18:58

it's not you know we think of a volcano

19:00

as like the pressure builds up and up and up

19:03

and up and then it bursts out upward

19:05

you know blowing the had the lid off

19:07

the live and work but for

19:10

example with mount st helens what

19:12

happened why are you know this know this this volcano

19:14

that erupted in a year though the oregon

19:16

washington border in the nineteen eighty

19:19

one eighty eight yeah things eighty

19:21

yeah nineteen eighty and dumb what

19:23

happened there is they saw the mountain bulging up

19:26

you know clearly there's magma building

19:28

up under it they do that this was you know our

19:30

than the mckenna we gotta watch and

19:32

then at some point the their

19:34

the balls when up and

19:37

out far enough that there was a landslide

19:39

though it's like the cats lynam off

19:42

then in the eruption was the magma chamber

19:44

suddenly being exposed at high

19:47

pressure that you know the magnitudes the

19:49

internal plumbing of the volcano the

19:51

cap just kind of got it slid off

19:53

by gravity in

19:55

a not exposed or the pressurized

19:58

interior that you know blasted the word and

20:00

created the the you

20:02

know giant cloud of ejector and know does

20:04

the hearts and other stuff that flowed out of the volcano

20:07

but it really was just the is the the lead

20:09

got removed and then right

20:11

that's when the eruption happens the

20:13

yeah if you if you smack the top of a volcano

20:16

you can uncork at you can reveal

20:18

the of release the pressure inside and

20:20

then again yeah , under the

20:23

but you're right about the power

20:25

you know when we look back to so it was a really big discovery

20:28

in the in the eighties and

20:30

ends up through the present about the it

20:32

asteroid you know hitting and and causing the

20:34

and dinosaur assumptions people

20:37

forget that would we were children they didn't know

20:39

about this for yeah there was a lot of arguing

20:41

i know it's fun the books that i read the

20:43

dinosaur book i read you know even fairly contemporary

20:46

ones with invalid like here all the

20:48

different dinosaurs we know about hears you know

20:50

they're they're features having lived why did

20:52

they die no one really knows could be

20:54

any young you know some assistance

20:56

of the lots of ideas yeah and then

20:58

and then and and the asteroid

21:01

idea seems outlandish when i was

21:03

proposed you know walter

21:05

, her as in the people who who kind

21:07

of pushed that idea until they found the crater

21:09

that was sort of the smoking gun and determined it was

21:12

really linked to the extinction

21:15

you know we it it seemed like

21:17

the idea that an asteroid could come along and hippie

21:19

earth and cause a bunch of disruption was

21:21

sort of hypothetical business but as

21:24

but the thing about those mass extinctions

21:26

is that asteroid impact explains one

21:29

of the kind of five big

21:31

mass extinctions in the historical record

21:34

the other four all

21:36

no one's been able to find asteroids that are really

21:39

conclusively links to those

21:41

other for mass extinctions but

21:44

they are all associated with large

21:47

of volcanic outpourings yeah

21:49

i'm be large igneous provinces

21:51

which which calling them a volcano

21:54

is sort of felix

21:57

in and get across what we're talking about us up

21:59

the problem with enlarge igneous program

22:01

is is that it sounds less scary than a volcano

22:04

but the problem with saying hey know is

22:06

that it also sounds less scary than what actually

22:08

happened yeah which is like your

22:10

entire beans and entire country

22:12

became volcanoes

22:15

you know it's like it just stopped

22:17

being land there it's like it wasn't like

22:19

there was an eruption outward from a point it's just

22:21

like lava just kind of started working

22:24

out across the whole landscape and

22:27

you'll find these mile deep a

22:29

miles deep layers of justin

22:32

lava that was all released at one

22:34

some the the palisades

22:36

in new york if you're driving across the

22:39

hudson on the bridge there what

22:41

you're seeing there is i think it's the traceca

22:44

the end triassic block magnetic

22:47

outpouring of larger nice profit and

22:50

it's it makes these cool columns as the

22:52

does lava piles up so

22:54

the use be the russians are just like the worst

22:57

thing that can happen to life because

22:59

they're associated with obviously

23:01

you don't want to be covered in lava so it's very

23:03

bad for years your yeah it just didn't have any

23:05

irvine albums but then you know you

23:07

get all kinds of poison gas is pouring

23:10

out into the landscape over the landscapes

23:12

giant are pulses of carbon released

23:14

into the atmosphere which causes as

23:17

we have recently sort of really figured

23:19

out rapid warming yeah and so

23:21

i have all of those really big extinctions

23:23

those other for all really seemed

23:26

there seems to the smoking gun of these large ah

23:28

volcanic events the end

23:31

most interesting twist dynamic

23:34

distinction okay also has

23:36

one of those given

23:38

what's now india the as the deccan

23:40

traps any it happened at

23:42

just about the same time as

23:45

the asteroid you know the meteor impact i mean

23:47

it was a big meteor impact what like

23:49

my brain says those things could be connected

23:51

to each other yeah my first thought when i

23:53

learned about this was hey the

23:56

in india happened to be right on the other side

23:58

of the country that's like like mum and agreements

24:01

anything feel less there and like

24:03

and unfortunately like i i dug up some old

24:05

maps music nope it wasn't okay so much for that

24:07

theory but and com

24:09

and the the there are a couple of this

24:11

is still you know being in the last five

24:13

years or so it's been a there's been

24:15

a lot of new research on effects

24:18

varies there is some some

24:20

decent suggestions as they try to get the timeline

24:22

exactly right that maybe the

24:25

deccan traps we're getting going then

24:27

when the asteroid hit in mexico you know

24:30

in what's now the yucatan peninsula i'm

24:32

that seems to have been associated with

24:34

the the magnetic outpouring

24:36

suddenly kicking way up a notch

24:39

then it's hard not to think

24:41

maybe there's a causal effect

24:43

that yeah though wow

24:46

i didn't know about that second i

24:48

assume that ,

24:51

and in the last sixty five million years i only

24:53

assume the for my own mental health health

24:55

changed on the earth so that these large

24:59

magnetic outpouring so outpouring think

25:01

is what you were saying aren't possible anymore

25:04

we shouldn't have to worry about it don't answer the

25:06

questions brisket a move on i

25:09

will not answer the question as he requests

25:12

ssssss we

25:14

all the little bit of research to do volcanoes

25:16

are bad but they're not as bad not whatever

25:19

this other kind of thing as do

25:22

not a question from your but this is from there is

25:24

a little short shorts answers

25:26

sections which i love break it up a little bit

25:29

ah keep it spicy

25:32

it's from james wilson who asks if asks if

25:34

a rocket and a bullet through jupiter

25:36

center would they come out the

25:38

other side no

25:41

definitely not it says there's an illustration

25:43

it's and science fact jupiter is bulletproof

25:46

it is i'm sure you you think gas

25:48

giant maybe maybe it's jag a big

25:50

blob of atmosphere but i did

25:52

the

25:53

the the at the gas only goes

25:55

down a little ways and then it just gets denser and

25:58

uncertain and

25:59

the middle

25:59

do better as is quite solid

26:02

and and

26:03

possibly a crystal

26:05

and metallic hydrogen or something like that yes

26:08

when you don't you think solid don't think

26:10

that there is a rock like there's a rocky planet down

26:12

there think that the the density

26:14

of the gas just gets so dense

26:17

that it eventually solidifies yeah

26:19

yeah and i mean and some extent ah

26:22

we don't know exactly

26:24

what's going on down never been there yet no one

26:26

having long as is it at the core of jupiter and

26:28

die return and

26:30

know whenever lox yeah we

26:32

we also we haven't even got close to visiting

26:34

the core of our planet's you know like right

26:36

here one of one of my i think one of my favorite

26:39

science taxed to derail briefly

26:41

is it the it the is slowing

26:43

down because of the moon's gravity

26:46

because of title friction and so

26:48

throughout all of earth's history it's been slowing down give

26:51

me my faster yeah yeah days used to be

26:53

shorter but

26:56

since a little before i

26:58

was born it's and speeding up yeah

27:01

the their the twitter is upset about this

27:03

right now i've been several people have a hack only him

27:05

like i'm terrified it should i be worried about

27:07

this and i'm like no like a similarly line

27:09

like well what

27:12

it what i really like about it is you know there is and

27:14

sissy years ago i have a symbol on a geophysicist

27:18

talking about this isn't about how like we

27:20

sort of know the reason and it's

27:23

something going on with the turbulent currents

27:25

in the in the outer core of the earth most

27:27

likely you know there's there's

27:29

some flowing around and that's what readers creating

27:32

a magnetic stimulation of mass yeah and

27:34

it's like chaotic so it's yes with his

27:37

it's gonna do these random fluctuations up and down

27:40

but it's also it's just so hard to

27:43

see the interior of the earth because

27:45

there's all this rock and the way that they're

27:47

like i've eaten these currents are

27:49

are and you know the patterns

27:52

that are causing this are unknown and possibly unknowable

27:55

and and i just like of there's something it's right there

27:58

the core of the earth it's directly below both of

28:00

us right now but it's

28:02

just doing it's doing it's own thing and we

28:04

we are not up it's like beyond our our

28:07

understanding yes and and

28:09

for the last four billion years we just

28:11

been like one system of

28:13

weird chemistry that's talking to

28:16

itself now to set on

28:18

in a little and a ferry sims little

28:20

film on the surface of this

28:22

ball that's doing its own think we're all just

28:25

we'd sing it's he like now that

28:27

is left over heat from the earth's

28:29

formation and were just sort of huddled around

28:31

it luckily

28:34

it's pretty well insulated yeah yeah it's

28:37

gonna keep doing it's thing hopefully not too

28:39

much that i'm still worried about the volcanic

28:41

some respects i mean i'm i'm

28:43

worried about it is it is not only well insulated

28:45

but increasingly well insulated in

28:48

a recent you're right now the am now we're

28:50

not even letting the that he'd get off

28:52

the surface ah

28:54

yes we're working on that yeah maybe

28:57

by the time this podcast comes out will

28:59

have some legislation that's gonna

29:01

be on the books yeah yeah manager

29:04

that know that said sir i'm i'm glad

29:06

we're moving on as i'm glad we're moving on this eventually

29:09

you're finally we've only known about it for

29:12

you know one hundred and six

29:14

hundred and thirty hundred and forty years now

29:18

yeah well look i've

29:21

enjoyed my refrigerator and car

29:24

so , that what

29:27

, the price that we will pay who knows

29:30

ah speaking of which this podcast

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29:47

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if you're hearing this at i think that the limited time

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i dunno what am i going to be but if you're hearing this i'm

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almost certain you can still do it

32:55

right

32:58

it is another question from one of our listeners it's from alex

33:00

who asks dear hank and randall the vatican

33:02

city is really really small and there

33:04

are one hundred and ninety five countries on earth

33:07

but how many countries would there be it's if all

33:09

of them were the size of vatican

33:11

city so it

33:13

isn't easy one you figure

33:16

out how big the vatican is you

33:18

figure out how big the land is and then

33:20

you divide them and the book

33:22

he did that economic a little notes here

33:24

you know the answer sure

33:27

yeah well how much that's

33:29

gonna do it's gonna be a three hundred and one

33:31

million eight hundred and thirty six thousand

33:33

seven hundred thirty five point six nine

33:36

in series

33:37

so not everyone on earth can have one

33:39

know but ah not even every american gray

33:42

area where it was three three hundred

33:44

thirty two million or so after learning i

33:46

am at from my my brenda yeah and

33:48

i upgrade the number every once in awhile but i

33:50

recently went to free thirty as as

33:53

young we just hit the point ah

33:55

a pretty recently where

33:57

it really makes sense to say the world

33:59

has

33:59

eight billion people instead of seven billion

34:02

yeah i'm gonna that's going to take a second

34:04

from my it's been slow and i think we're now we

34:06

i think we're still under a billion but we're

34:08

close enough now that any reasonable rounding

34:11

gets you to a right and

34:13

so doesn't get well it definitely doesn't get you to

34:15

seven season had our to say well

34:17

maybe it's time to start saying seven and seven and

34:20

which it was a while ago yeah you can say

34:22

seven point seven yeah so

34:25

am for years or the

34:27

us is us is thirty two so

34:29

the so we can have all but about

34:32

ten percent you know ninety percent of us could know the

34:34

americans have their own

34:36

vatican sized country yeah

34:38

but you have to choose now

34:41

which ten percent doesn't get one yeah

34:46

problem dot will do about the high

34:48

garam september's any you need to

34:50

move some what's the problem is that a lot of these

34:52

vatican's are going to be in alaska and hands

34:55

that's going to be tricky i mean there's there there are

34:57

large chunks of the earth that i'm

35:00

if if you're if you get a swatch

35:02

of you know half of square kilometer yeah

35:05

you know if you're swatch of have a square kilometer

35:08

like you know includes

35:10

a cool beach resort and

35:12

some farm spike in cool you

35:14

got a good country going and if you know your swaths

35:16

of land is a hundred miles

35:19

away from the mcmurdo research station

35:21

antarctica you're going to need to develop

35:23

some interesting trade policies trade policies figure

35:26

out what i don't know what do you have a comparative

35:28

advantage i am mostly

35:31

advantage odd keeping people away

35:33

from me i think that's the main thing you can do with the

35:35

country there and at that size

35:37

you could try to advertise cool penguin tourism

35:40

or something but you'd be competing with

35:42

what you'd know from know lot of lot couple tens

35:44

of millions of other people whose only industrious

35:47

thing when tourism now

35:49

i definitely rather have to select a little bit

35:51

of not a country right here

35:54

them the a whole a

35:56

whole vatican sides country some

35:58

at some random point the

36:00

on i think that's if i've got this

36:02

was all my very favorite questions from from your books

36:05

could a person he the whole cloud the

36:08

this question surprised me a bunch of different

36:10

times the i know something's

36:12

got clouds they can be very big but they

36:14

don't have to be it's it's on page one ninety

36:17

size silicon knights and so

36:19

so

36:20

ramble can i eat a clown

36:22

no ah

36:26

nine i drink can i drink can cloud so

36:28

this is the question is was like okay

36:31

what a closer made of water

36:33

the new drink them or do you

36:35

eat them well are you

36:37

breeze them honestly you don't you either of those

36:39

that yes has like as waters water is

36:41

edible visit but

36:44

then i'm like okay we'll or is it you know it's potable

36:47

which then led me to like you know what exactly

36:49

how do you you know if you're eating a vapor

36:52

you know drew like freezing

36:55

is bringing into your lungs but eating is

36:57

bringing is bringing years and so

37:00

hm you can swallow a gas

37:02

you can you know you can you can swallow air

37:05

and then a a little bit later you burp it up

37:08

the so you've got the spectrum of things

37:10

you eat which are edible and things you drink which are potable

37:13

and i was trying to figure out what the exact mid point

37:15

is i feel like it's i feel like it's

37:17

suit make

37:19

slurpee is i think you drink but

37:21

like save a sort of

37:24

you know the

37:26

ice cones i think media original

37:28

now and crutch yeah we're but it's like

37:30

it's sort of like of milk shaky

37:33

that's your sort of like ice cream filling

37:36

you need that the but you could get involved

37:38

a little that yeah bobo i don't know how to coach

37:40

i don't know how to how to classify that's

37:43

that's a great player i think that bobo in

37:45

the same vein as like a sin soup

37:47

with noodles and and you both eat and drink at

37:50

yeah you ingest bobo

37:53

so if you and i dissent i do note

37:56

so yes so if you try to eat a cloud

37:58

you can swallow action the of moisture

38:00

you know if you could do could take some of the moisture

38:03

from a cloudy the foot up there in a balloon or something and

38:05

then take some it is your mouth and swallow

38:07

then you'd have air and your stomach with the moisture

38:10

in the cloud would be in there yeah

38:12

and mcleod would be in there and you can and then very

38:15

small clouds yeah clouds

38:17

yeah you know there there's the big ones that you see

38:19

inner we go a moderate attic that

38:21

is but then there's the little ones that just kind of

38:23

very briefly block the sun as they go over you

38:25

yes those little wisps

38:28

the ones that are only out on the hottest of days

38:30

for your like could you please be a

38:32

little bit will be better and

38:35

yeah and i think i love the clouds from both

38:37

sides now yeah some i mean up with some

38:39

up from down when in lose some

38:41

strange from charms success

38:45

know that

38:46

wow

38:47

if you do try to eat a cloud though for

38:50

you can you can take it into your stomach but

38:52

anyone who has swallowed air like any one

38:54

as a kid we ask every they could swallow air

38:56

discovers like your stomach

38:58

is like hey there's air in here yeah

39:01

i need to do something about this and then you purpose back

39:03

out you don't have to the it

39:06

is possible for the air to pass through the whole digestive

39:08

system that is a couple of ways to increase

39:11

the probability of this happening mainly

39:13

used to try and create a foam inside of your stomach

39:15

which is then harder to burp out

39:17

and the of more likely

39:19

to pass those those that cloud through

39:22

your whole the justice system at which point you fart and

39:24

at that point you did read

39:26

it like eat the cloud yeah

39:29

yeah and i think i mean is is so we

39:31

can we can be more vague and say you

39:33

can swallow the air and then

39:36

it will ah yeah it you will

39:38

have eaten it for a little bit them

39:41

the

39:42

which you know i suppose is true of anything but

39:44

i'm yeah if you if

39:46

you just start trying to swallow a cloud

39:49

and your you know holy more and more more

39:51

air what's interesting though when you burp

39:53

it out is that

39:55

it

39:56

the air that uber about you're like well i swallowed

39:59

the moisture want to keep the air cilic

40:01

when you're eating potato chips they've got a lot of air and

40:03

them the up and they've got a lot of

40:05

i'm ah ah you know

40:07

potato chip the get a lot potato salad

40:10

of oil system and a so when you like criminal

40:12

open your mouth the air escapes from

40:14

your mouth the potato part those

40:17

down your throat the with a cloud

40:20

what eat it it you can sue them what

40:23

what part of a cloud is cloud yeah

40:26

exactly the cloud is like the water

40:28

suspended in the air is

40:30

it or is the cloud the

40:32

air and the water together yeah well i

40:36

don't know a damning this is this is another of those

40:38

kind of definition questions i think

40:40

that the funnier answer is that it's the water that's

40:42

easier to sort of get yeah says that feels

40:45

like what i meeting yes well liked

40:47

what you mean way when you eat pringle you know like

40:49

pringles has the ad that's like the art ships

40:51

have less air in the container you're not dying

40:53

air you know like zoo with the cloud

40:57

what you're doing is you're trying to get the water from the

40:59

cloud and get it into your digestive

41:01

system but if you're swallowing

41:03

the air and then burping it out the

41:05

air that uberpower is gonna be moistened

41:08

by all the moisture in your body and

41:11

so you're if you eat a chunk of cloud and then you berkeley

41:13

air out edit wetter your

41:15

body is kind of yeah it's gonna be saturated

41:17

with moisture so you're going a the

41:19

up the having a year make my or clouds

41:22

yeah cause your body is really movies like

41:24

moisture than the environments because

41:26

the cloud is not nearly as much

41:28

stuff as you six yeah you

41:30

look at it as feel like that's a lot of stuff

41:32

but in fact it is not a lot

41:34

of stuff so so the if i could condense

41:37

ah the water out of the cloud what

41:39

are we talking about into can i could

41:42

i even if it was just the water

41:44

would i consume that yeah so one of

41:46

those clouds that sort of like how size

41:48

the ones that will block i q i'll plan for yeah

41:51

it'll likely i go over your like a good start

41:53

for second then he gets light again and you ago and high time

41:55

oh no it's daytime again you know the i'm

41:57

yeah one of those it might just be like a couple

41:59

glasses of water this

42:02

is what shocked me so much i don't know

42:04

why i assumed this but i figured that that was

42:06

gonna be way more us i i thought i was gonna

42:08

be like a half a year for me to drink

42:10

that cloud yeah know you could one sitting

42:12

it is slim it back

42:14

but

42:16

you could just chug you i mean you need to get

42:18

it out of the air into

42:20

a glass but once it's there that's a pro

42:22

that we disregard yeah that's the to get

42:25

a put you gotta have it is wrapped that cloud

42:27

up in , gonna plastic

42:29

saying minute around children

42:32

has children that you can easily get the cloud

42:34

in there it'll users are had

42:36

are squeezing mechanism to use the mouse

42:39

somebody would have somebody would be

42:41

a lot of money for glad you the

42:43

also that is a fantastic name

42:45

brand for of bottled water cloud

42:48

use i like that on put that on the label

42:50

are i know he still that for me i like it

42:53

it was do one more question from from the during

42:55

a john box it's some huey

42:57

the asks

42:59

you're hanging randall if you were a leading the perseverance

43:01

rover team and you discovered oil on mars

43:04

would you tell the world about

43:08

yeah yeah as a very

43:10

big news that's thus said

43:12

deciding the biggest news so

43:15

far yeah yeah i mean when you think

43:17

always struck oil you know what

43:19

you serve immediately think of is oh this

43:21

is now an economic thing that people will want to

43:23

extract movements but that's

43:26

so my market as they have that problem here with

43:28

first of all easier to get his back get near

43:30

as yeah and he is

43:32

so like we it's were right now

43:35

putting like a decades of effort and

43:37

a huge amount of engineering and work by smart

43:39

people try to get a bunch of little test tubes

43:42

full of rock back from mars yeah

43:44

like it's going to cost many billions of doesn't

43:46

get enough oil for years zippo lighter

43:49

back here and it's gonna take that medicaid

43:51

and it's and it costs you know to thirty billion

43:53

dollars yeah and then

43:55

you're going on that's not the concern yeah but

43:57

sick with but this is this

43:59

is a big this new so far yes because

44:02

oil

44:03

his

44:04

the critters it's bionic

44:06

yes it's yeah it's both have all that

44:08

oil under the that we find

44:10

under the earth is from various living

44:13

organisms the died and were compressed

44:15

and so right now they are on mars

44:17

everyone looking for you know not always not

44:20

always save their specifically looking for it but everyone

44:22

is certainly keeping an eye out for yes

44:24

signs of past life on mars and

44:27

i would be a girl be a big clue that would be

44:29

guy in that actual underlying texas t

44:32

that's the equivalent of the size of

44:34

like you know driving

44:36

, a big rocks and behind it

44:38

finding some skeletons like

44:41

okay like don't know yeah

44:45

from a tree you know i don't need to the

44:47

return a sample for analysis in your area

44:49

there's there's some bones set things look

44:51

at got blades on its arms you know nothings

44:53

one of the of one of the questions in your book

44:55

or in what have to is

44:58

something like how how

45:00

much of my oil is dinosaur

45:04

what is what is the percentage that is

45:06

actually interesting megafauna rather

45:08

than just boring stuff

45:10

yeah and and it's

45:12

it's as if there's a percentage in

45:15

general oil a

45:17

a you know crude oil the oil comes

45:20

from organisms the

45:23

died in the ocean it's mostly

45:25

like like marine sediments

45:28

and i'm this isn't a hard and fast rule

45:30

it that is what

45:32

mostly ends up for up producing

45:35

those whereas i'm coal

45:38

is the remnants of organism

45:41

terrestrial organise

45:42

that guy

45:43

i needed is because of differences in the in the

45:45

deposition environment but

45:47

then at then same time like

45:49

the things are different forms

45:52

of these these coal oil natural

45:54

gas can be sort of converted into

45:56

each other depending on what combinations of pressures

45:58

and times and temperature is there

46:02

i'm so you're you're you're

46:04

plastic dinosaur it

46:06

still may contain some dinosaur

46:08

you know they're right there were there were some aquatic

46:10

dinosaurs there are some

46:13

land environments the did end up contributing

46:15

to oil deposits but

46:17

there's also a just the reality

46:20

that most

46:23

have the so like most of the c

46:26

o two that has been converted by

46:28

life into complex carbon

46:30

change that would eventually gets turned into

46:33

fossil fuels most

46:36

most of that that's done is done

46:38

not by big interesting

46:41

animals it's done by bacteria

46:43

it's done by plants just

46:45

that's not that's mother most of the bio mass of

46:47

the earth is not in you

46:49

know lions and bisons yeah

46:52

bisons yeah an end tree

46:54

rats really are big contributors

46:56

i'm there i think

46:59

i think it's interesting i know i might i might be

47:01

getting this from i think i'm on land the

47:03

pyramid of how much masses in primary

47:06

producers are secondary producers

47:09

is inverted is is it's

47:11

i'm on land trees

47:14

are most of the mass yeah

47:16

i'm whereas in the ocean it's

47:18

like the secondary and and tertiary

47:21

other end of the food chain that makes

47:23

up most of the actual mass the

47:25

alka but i'm and

47:28

and i'm not i'm not sure why i guess it's just how it

47:30

shakes out what the

47:32

i'm but yet do so so those

47:34

big trees trees i think are big and

47:36

cool and charismatic and they there

47:39

is this period that my i think my favorite

47:41

geologic period is the carboniferous

47:43

which is named because

47:45

it's

47:46

that i know these carbon deposits terry

47:48

carbonate yeah and it's when we got we

47:51

got these huge forests of these

47:53

big like spurn like and of

47:56

the tree like things

47:58

and this was kind of

47:59

first part the earth's

48:02

history where when i look at reconstructions

48:04

of it it feels like a recognizable

48:07

mike like environment to me

48:09

as if you if you you and i encourage people to just

48:11

google like google image search like carboniferous

48:15

you know paleo art landscape it

48:17

it looks like a the the

48:20

you know it's we had what looks

48:22

like a forest you know wouldn't have

48:24

looked right it looks like that's a weird

48:26

forest with ferns and

48:29

search giant bugs and the trees

48:31

don't look right when you really look at them you're like oh

48:33

these are these are strange i'm

48:36

not normal trees but you're still

48:38

like first gut instinct seeing it

48:40

as like oh yeah forests and know what those

48:42

are so i guess mom's you know it's a forest

48:44

that's like the first time that earth feels like home

48:47

to me a

48:49

suspect is the carboniferous at

48:51

and yeah and that's where most of our coal deposits

48:54

come from his is

48:57

the carboniferous so i guess

49:00

straight hitting oil on mars

49:02

immediately tell yes there is a period in the

49:04

past when it was lay around

49:06

when the earth looked something more

49:08

like when mars looked something more like

49:12

what earth looks like now now

49:16

the skeletons behind iraq the

49:18

he has some he never be the it seems everyone's

49:21

i mean everyone you get all these internet people

49:23

looking at pictures of mars me like i think i see a face

49:25

i think you know i see a skills like often

49:27

as be bored or is this there's a skull

49:29

they're they're gonna go look at but they're definitely

49:32

excited there's a but there's also a

49:34

lot of rocks that look like faces from

49:36

certain era we're we're good

49:38

at identifying things that look like

49:40

faces specifically and like

49:42

things that we want them to like in general

49:45

yeah well and in it in

49:47

mars news this

49:49

week curiosity has

49:51

officially been on this i cannot believe

49:54

this has been on the surface of mars for ten

49:56

years that we just hits a decade

49:58

of curiosity doing so it's on mars

50:01

on august fifth as

50:03

when it landed it landed then it's been very busy

50:06

it's climbed bout two thousand feet

50:08

it's driven almost eighteen miles it

50:10

studied forty one different rocks

50:12

and soil samples with it's bevy of

50:14

scientific instruments which have also taken

50:17

fix it but of which have also taken pictures of clouds

50:19

and of moons and of the landscape

50:21

and measured the amount of radiation the future astronauts

50:23

will have to contend with when their scope

50:26

it out mars and the rover found

50:28

that gale crater adelaide once ah

50:30

which meant that at least tens of millions of

50:33

years ago there was liquid water are in

50:35

that crater so curiosity is

50:37

that it's mission extended now for those three

50:39

years even though it's looking pretty beat up i like

50:41

you know as people are you know not

50:44

happy the curiosities wheels have

50:46

taken such a beating and it's to

50:48

doing it's mission but it does look

50:50

like it's been on mars for ten years

50:53

yeah that's kind of cool yeah

50:56

i mean and i am i'm

50:58

so impressed that it i mean

51:00

pretty ah all of these every time they're gonna

51:02

they're going to land a new one i'm just like this is is

51:05

can't work i've been i've not going to oregon and

51:07

said not allow us to ask you like

51:09

if you never have this many things work

51:11

on the first trusts the idea

51:13

you do it has once yeah exactly

51:16

and and like you can't fly out there and tweak

51:18

something if the something wrong and yell just

51:20

such an incredible achievement and so yeah

51:22

yeah like yeah the wheels got a little beat

51:24

up by like it's it's really incredible that

51:26

that's the biggest problem as if you know the

51:29

i had some then

51:31

i mean it you know maybe it's now that now that

51:33

perseverance has landed a suddenly

51:36

curiosity is like it's like

51:38

oh the new cool person came into

51:40

town and now i'm self conscious about my wheels

51:43

assess assess the fire psych night

51:45

and night don't the they did build preserve variances

51:48

wheels different yeah they learn some they learn some

51:50

lessons there they do

51:52

, know what i was fascinated to find out what

51:55

the problem was that with

51:57

the wheels which

51:59

is that a way that erosion

52:01

works on mars is all window on erosion and

52:03

so he looks like as a bunch of rocks on the

52:05

surface of mars and a lot of them are rocks

52:07

but a lot of them are just the bedrock

52:10

that has been eroded and what happens

52:12

is

52:13

the

52:14

like hard like slightly harder

52:16

rock in the bedrock will get eroded

52:18

by wind and the stuff that's been exposed

52:21

for a longer has been eroded food for

52:23

a longer period of time and so it's thinner and

52:25

then as it goes down as like time passes

52:28

de ya de glace that stuff that has been eroded

52:30

as been exposed him more recently

52:32

is thicker and so basically the way

52:34

that erosion works on mars it

52:36

, spikes sister

52:39

sharp rocks spikes that are not

52:41

things you can pushover they are just

52:43

spikes that suit up into the air and i i

52:46

drive a big heavy rover around on those

52:48

of the problems it's it's always weird

52:50

when nature like through some very

52:53

simple laws of physics or

52:55

or i you know geology

52:57

does something weird like creating spikes

53:00

there though yes there's a theory were who i

53:02

think hoping to confirm this potentially

53:04

with the some of the orbiters

53:06

were sending to jupiter but the

53:09

the theory is that some of those ac planets

53:11

that are you know like the icy moons their

53:14

the the moons of jupiter

53:16

like europa and then pluto

53:18

and ah ah you know the

53:20

the further out quicker belt objects the

53:23

theory is that those or maybe covered in spikes

53:27

because the way the ice melts of

53:29

when it's heated by the sun you

53:32

get is weird there's this weird affected happens

53:34

sometimes were the

53:36

little how random depth

53:39

the get created

53:40

it has is some the sun geometry

53:43

and up melting faster them

53:45

the you have been hollows like the low areas

53:47

get lower the hire a really

53:50

high and you end up with spikes if they're called a

53:52

pennant and tights i think though

53:54

it which doesn't sound nice know

53:56

and so and and dumb and

53:58

this happens in some

53:59

those are you know i sealed

54:02

with or a combination of snow and

54:04

sun and moisture

54:06

no it's possible that if you tried to land

54:08

on the ice surface of you know of

54:10

europa or pluto do

54:12

you approach you'd find oh the whole

54:14

landscape is just ten foot spikes

54:18

hopefully we'll send something that's not a person

54:20

first to check that out and but

54:22

i'll still feel bad if we build a rover

54:24

and spend you know thirty

54:26

, like developing the wheels and developing

54:29

everything so we've learned how to deal with you

54:31

know the mars surface we made

54:33

the we're has your tasks and then we lower

54:35

it and any like the some down

54:37

for a landing on on europa and

54:39

it's just like wedged between

54:42

two giants spikes in it's

54:44

sitting there for real sitting in the air and

54:47

we're like are a week this

54:49

was a concern with the moon ah

54:51

we weren't sure if it was just gonna be like you

54:53

know and i don't see why it couldn't be just

54:56

the know ten feet deep dust

54:59

yeah dust yeah think the reason there's an urgency

55:01

clerk story from before we landed about

55:04

the a space a spacecraft landing

55:06

on the moon and just sinking in hundreds of see why

55:08

it why wasn't always like oh this is

55:10

a problem for yeah like there's the erosion

55:13

works differently there is no atmosphere who knows how this stuff

55:15

works and so like back first step you

55:17

know the neil armstrong stepping off of the the

55:19

main like they had something of

55:21

an idea just because the lander had

55:23

not sunk yeah yeah and then center

55:26

they'd sentencing before that landed on the yet

55:28

but i'm but that's why but lady where they

55:30

may be where they landed the i was

55:32

casts a big modesty plane you know specially

55:35

like they they couldn't be that precise about it so

55:37

like when he when he was stepping off of the latter

55:40

he was much down and he's like they're

55:42

gonna support drink you know like and

55:45

that's why the into the first first one of the first things

55:47

he says it's like you saying okay my feet are sinking

55:49

in about this far right you notice

55:51

because like they were really concerned

55:54

with your ex gf scared turns out

55:56

it's just the right amount of dust for really great footprints

55:58

yeah now it's very i'm

56:02

sure you can add this and year conspiracy theory

56:04

the great yeah yeah

56:06

why would it be that will like mega business

56:08

is secretly went ahead of time you

56:11

set up the are the lighting in the us so

56:13

i can hardly did land on the moon but the conspiracy

56:15

with they also sent stanley kubrick to the moon

56:18

that could make it look at a dust

56:21

that the dust just perfect around the landing

56:23

site next well in a assume of

56:25

the news i don't really know

56:28

what's going on but i do know that since the

56:30

last time we recorded they had a draw that's

56:33

all and they've got a winner to draw

56:36

right the on average they're winning

56:40

when in a yeah well yes that's on

56:42

average that's winning for sure it has okay it

56:45

is that you can round them up to winning

56:47

if

56:48

if they get one know if they lose one

56:51

they've added a when a tie in a draw

56:53

a when a draw and a loss the

56:56

know the around up

56:58

or down drink

57:00

either know that i got point is they've they've

57:02

they're sit there and the middle there a draw

57:04

yeah and like in rounding you to iraq

57:07

does he around three point five to four

57:09

in in math right well actually

57:12

in soccer and for some

57:14

reason i think that a winning is three points

57:16

a draw is one and of losses

57:18

hero so just to make the math not

57:20

make any sense at all now that will but

57:22

that gives you an unambiguous answer is a dries

57:25

up is a loss more along with

57:27

more often when yes our that's

57:29

the same randall your book is an

57:31

absolute delight console is the first

57:34

one i i i can't get enough of it

57:36

and it's ,

57:38

a it's a pleasure to pick it up it's so

57:40

much much better than anything that

57:42

i see when i open my phone so

57:45

that that's an unambiguous when for everybody

57:48

of oh thank you it is called

57:50

what is to have have

57:53

serious scientific answers to absurd

57:55

hypothetical questions and

57:58

i'm men if you want to see more of what it randall

58:00

does it's x k c d dot com

58:02

and you can join legions

58:05

of fans who have been falling rendell

58:07

for over a decade now are

58:09

doing really wonderful things there though

58:12

you're gonna hit twenty years so man yeah

58:14

yeah that's exciting

58:16

the the lot of fun

58:19

i'm i'm excited that there's

58:22

a there's just so lot more stuff to learn about assess

58:24

assess as i was like on probably run out

58:27

but i'm also a mood at

58:29

the point in my like science make a some career

58:31

where i realized that spitzer

58:33

things we know now are more

58:36

than they were before yet there's minister

58:38

there's always new stuff to talk of acts yeah

58:41

there's there's more science there's a question really

58:43

go this is an interesting question and the new and

58:45

and you're like yeah i guess that's it might be this or that

58:47

maybe the dinosaurs that from this may be from that and

58:49

then come back to it's like oh we solve that gas

58:51

nice closure but now somebody

58:54

somebody figure that out people are always try

58:57

to figure things out what did the right

58:59

yeah yeah the book is what is to

59:02

additional serious scientific answers to absurd

59:04

hypothetical questions it's available september

59:06

thirteenth everywhere it's

59:08

also available for preorder right now

59:10

you can preorder wherever there are books and you probably

59:12

should cause it's very it's very thank you so much

59:14

for joining me on this episode

59:17

as us senator john this podcast is

59:19

edited by joseph to the medicines produced by

59:21

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59:23

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