Imagine this. You are in a glass sphere (15x15 feet) that has a glass floor located in the middle of it. This sphere is out in space heading towards an unspecified direction at 102mph. In this sphere on this floor is:
* You
* a flat bed with no sheets
* an automatically climate controlled environment
* a spherically shaped fridge with unlimted food and drink (healthy selection of various cuisines)
* a spherical toilet
NOTHING ELSE. No television or no books. No way to break the glass. No way to end your life!
Can one die of boredom? Would you go crazy? How wacked would this be?
2007-08-19 21:11:34 · 12 answers · asked by Peter N 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Well, this probably isn't what you wanted, but...
I don't even think such a situation is even possible. Nevermind the "unlimited" food and water part. What I mean is the speed. Nothing in space is completely still or even slow. Everything is moving incredibly fast. For example, just to get into Earth orbit, you have to get up to Mach 25...17,000 MPH! That's about 5 miles per second. Anything slower than that and you'll just fall back and re-enter the atmosphere. That's because even in orbit you aren't completely free of the Earth's gravity. Your speed is basically counteracting gravity and you're "falling around" the Earth. To really break free of gravity, you would have to go much farther out, like where geosynchronous satelites are. So that image people have of spaceships just kind of floating in space like boats just isn't true. Everything is moving INCREDIBLY, INSANELY fast. The Space Shuttle isn't just floating out there in space right now, it is shooting over our heads faster than you can imagine. That's also why re-entry is so dangerous. They have to de-orbit and then slam back into the atmosphere at that speed. Without the heat shield, they'd just be a meteor.
Now let's say you do break free of Earth's gravity...okay, well in order to do that you'd have to reach escape velocity, much faster than orbital velocity. So let's say you break free of Earth's gravity and now you are just some poor doomed fool drifting into deep space (at over 17,000 MPH). Well, the thing is that there are countless other things in space that have a gravitational pull...planets, asteroids, the Moon...the Sun. On a REALLY good day, your aim might be just right and you'll eventually get captured by the Moon's gravity. You'll go into orbit around the Moon...or if you come in too steep maybe you'll slam right into it and be saved from wandering out further into space.
If not, you'll keep drifting farther out, being attracted by something else with a bigger gravitational pull...like the Sun. But you'd be drifting that way a heck of a lot faster than 102 MPH! You wouldn't feel it though.
So would you go crazy? Yeah, maybe. But like someone else said...just don't eat or drink water for long enough and that'll do the trick. That would be a really painful way to go though. Actually...just take the fridge apart and inhale the freon. That would do it too.
But my point is there just is no way any of this would be possible anyway.
2007-08-19 22:36:54 · answer #1 · answered by Diverging Point 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Why is your "sphere" 15x15 feet? A sphere is not determined by two measurements, but by one. It does not have two "sides" or anything of the sort for you to measure as 15x15.
I think I would go insane trying to figure out how I managed to get inside a 15x15 sphere, since such a shape is nonsensical.
2007-08-20 05:36:00 · answer #2 · answered by сhееsеr1 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Using all that I learned by watching countless episodes of Star Trek, I would disassemble the fridge, use the parts to build a Ion engine, and return home. That or I would develop multiple personalities- one of those would choke the original personality that came up with the star trek inspired answer to this question. Thus it ends.
2007-08-20 04:38:10 · answer #3 · answered by inquizetor 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I could think of a lot worse things. I'm not a huge social type. But no books? That would be hard.
And since you are going so slow, the view outside wouldn't change much in your lifetime, so boring!
If you so wished, you could drown yourself with whatever beverages you have.
If that didn't work, then you would eventually hate it so much that you could just not drink or eat. You would be dead in 3 to 4 days with no water.
2007-08-20 04:17:09 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can die of water poisoning, so as long as you have unlimited food and drink you can end your life
Water poisoning doesnt mean contaminated water, means drinking so much that your blood "thins" and protein, salts and other nutrient gradients fall. When your salt gradient falls, a certain hormone stops being produced, and you die.
2007-08-20 12:08:45 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
As long as you have a mind, you can do something. At least the view would be great.
2007-08-20 04:19:54 · answer #6 · answered by mike453683 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To live perhaps forever, without prospect of human company comes pretty close to my idea of hell.
2007-08-20 04:16:57 · answer #7 · answered by Barb Outhere 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
why would I only be moving at 102 mph?
2007-08-20 04:16:31 · answer #8 · answered by Tony 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You really need to get out more!! What kind of idiot thinks something like that. Seriously....Get a life!!
2007-08-20 04:24:47 · answer #9 · answered by Luke P 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋
i don't think you could die of boredom, but i think you could go crazy.
2007-08-20 04:15:45 · answer #10 · answered by nickipettis 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋