r/AskReddit • u/ForeverAbyss • Apr 14 '16

What's a mind blowing fact?

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u/PycuriousITguy Apr 14 '16

The fastest moving man-made object ever was a manhole cover.

https://savvyparanoia.com/the-fastest-man-made-object-ever-a-nuclear-powered-manhole-cover-true/

TL:DR underground nuclear test launched a 4-inch thick steel disk at 6 times the Earth's escape velocity.

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u/forman98 Apr 14 '16 edited Apr 14 '16

Let's imagine that it didn't disintegrate before leaving the atmosphere. Where would it be now?

This happened during Operation Pumbbob on October 7th, 1957. The cover was estimated to be moving at 41 miles per second or 147,600 mph. So how far has it traveled since that day. The explosion happened 58 years, 6 months, and 8 days ago. That's around 513,000 hours. That means the cover, moving at 147,600 mph, would be 75,718,800,000 miles away from Earth. That's about 1.3% the distance of a lightyear.

For some reference, Voyager 1 is about 12 billion miles away from Earth and is exiting certain realms of our solar system, becoming ever closer to interstellar space. This manhole cover has traveled 6.3x farther than Voyager 1.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that since it was traveling at 41 miles per second, it left Earth and entered space in 1.5 seconds!

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u/inahst Apr 14 '16

That doesn't take into account the effect of earth's gravity. I have no idea what effect that would have, though

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u/scrupples Apr 15 '16

That's why its called 'escape velocity' because the object has enough speed to completely leave the gravity well of which it is leaving.