[HN Gopher] Simulator of digging a tunnel through the earth
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Simulator of digging a tunnel through the earth
Author : dariosalvi78
Score : 53 points
Date : 2021-08-26 10:43 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (supertunnel.app)
(TXT) w3m dump (supertunnel.app)
| butz wrote:
| I was hoping for some interesting information on what happens
| when such tunnel reaches Earth's inner core...
| zerop wrote:
| Reminding me of that place in india on a coastal temple, where
| there was an arrow put up in ancient time. It has a text in
| Sanskrit that says that it points to South pole and there is no
| land between the arrow and south pole. Not able to recall the
| name. Something like that
| CrazyStat wrote:
| As far as I can tell the current temple at Somnath was built in
| 1951, hardly ancient.
| dotancohen wrote:
| Wikipedia mentions that Muslim invaders have destroyed the
| temple multiple times over the centuries.
| CrazyStat wrote:
| Yes, that's why I said current. I see nothing indicating
| that the arrow to the south pole predates the 1951
| construction.
| appwiz wrote:
| Somnath temple https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnath_temple
| amelius wrote:
| Ok, I entered start and end position. How do I start the
| simulation?
| szszrk wrote:
| I'm afraid that red line is it. The gaming industry spoiled us,
| giving us so many weird "simulators". This thing would be
| called "red line simulator" on Steam, and would likely still
| sell well.
| archeantus wrote:
| Observation: there is a ton of water on this planet.
| account42 wrote:
| > Thesis project for the Interaction Design master's at Malmo
| University
|
| Having to enter the start by a name (or your location) and
| destination by a 2d grid while neither can be selected on the
| globe as far as I can tell certainly is a choice you can make for
| "Interaction Design". A good one though?
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Never mind that a joystick is a very imprecise way to select
| your end point ... I keep trying to hit an island out in the
| Pacific and cannot with the coarseness of the joystick.
| gus_massa wrote:
| Nice, but where is Antarctica?
|
| Is it possible to stop the rotation of the Earth?
|
| It would be nice to be able to enter the coordinates instead of
| the name of the city, for people that lives in small towns.
| DecoPerson wrote:
| To stop the auto-rotating, paste this into your address bar:
| javascript:app.three.controls.autoRotate = false
|
| Note that Chrome will remove the "javascript:" prefix when
| pasting, and you'll need to manually add it back yourself.
| datameta wrote:
| Interesting idea, but I don't want to use my GPS location to try
| it out. I wish it were possible to manually input a location by
| tapping.
| krab wrote:
| If you decline to share your location, you can then search for
| a city.
| raldi wrote:
| There's no way to know this until you first tap "Get My
| Location".
| sixothree wrote:
| I would love for one of these that stayed in the same hemisphere.
| beardyw wrote:
| I haven't even got down one metre yet. I hoped I'd be done before
| it gets dark. How is anyone else doing?
| davbryn1 wrote:
| This really doesn't simulate anything.
| tornadofart wrote:
| To all those thinking: "this doesn't do much": try it on mobile.
| genezeta wrote:
| It still doesn't do much. Mobile version just changes the input
| controls to using geolocation and motion sensors.
|
| Other than that the functionality is still the same; it doesn't
| _do more_ on mobile.
| xwdv wrote:
| Neat, but do you think it may ever be possible to build these
| kind super tunnels somehow? How wide?
| amelius wrote:
| Is there even a material that can withstand the temperature of
| Earth's core?
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| Sure, with enough active cooling :).
|
| The tunnel could easily double as an extremely powerful
| geothermal plant.
| amelius wrote:
| I think it may be easier to build a "lava submarine" ...
| pc86 wrote:
| Not only that but wouldn't you basically need a rocket in
| order to get from the core to the surface?
| amelius wrote:
| I guess you just "fall" into the tunnel, and then your
| journey ends with speed=0 at the other end because of
| energy conservation.
| dotancohen wrote:
| Friction will likely mean that you don't come up to the
| same height as you left.
| amelius wrote:
| You'll just grab the rope that's hanging in the tunnel at
| the other end, and climb out :)
| peanut_worm wrote:
| we have barely even made a dent in the crust, I don't think
| that would happen in our lifetime.
| bluGill wrote:
| Depends, if you are going right through the earth's core it
| will probably be forever impossible (though maybe someone in
| materials science knows more than me?). However if you are
| trying to go closer to the surface it is possible today, it
| isn't the most direct route, but on the other hand you probably
| want to pop up every once in while anyway. New York to eastern
| LA is only a question of economics, we have the technology, and
| you would want to have a station several cities along the way
| as long as you are digging so the tunnel wouldn't go deep. Note
| that I said eastern LA, you can't get too far west without
| crossing a major fault line and that is not something I think
| we can handle. (I'm not aware of any fault lines on the rest of
| the path, but they would stop this tunnel - I wouldn't be
| surprised if someone pointed one out)
| MiddleEndian wrote:
| Eventually, but given that we have yet to even build a
| submerged floating tunnel[0] it will be awhile.
|
| 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submerged_floating_tunnel
|
| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Br...
| (tunnel #2 in this image)
| eplanit wrote:
| It's cool looking, but frankly it has nothing to do with "digging
| a tunnel". It's a "graphically draw a line through a sphere" app.
|
| Digging a tunnel would have to deal with deep earth concerns,
| such as how to deal with the core, what to do with the removed
| material, etc.
| grendelt wrote:
| Yeah. It's just a line connecting antipodes on a 3D model.
| jafo wrote:
| Undersea by rail. Ninety minutes from New York to Paris: 5600 km
| ffhhj wrote:
| Enters The Ever Given.
| bluGill wrote:
| Too bad we can't pull it off with current technology.
| jafo wrote:
| Guess we will just fantasize about it in song then:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ueivjr3f8xg
|
| The future is bright: wheels in space, underwater trains, and
| everyone gets a spandex jacket.
| xpe wrote:
| According to "How long would it take to fall through the center
| of the Earth?" [1], it would take 2 * 42 min = 84 min, ignoring
| air resistance, and, (probably) survival of the passengers.
|
| [1] https://www.physicscentral.com/explore/poster-earth.cfm
|
| This approximation accounts for this fact: "As you fall there
| is less and less mass between you and the center so there is
| less and less to pull you down"
| el_nahual wrote:
| Why wouldn't the passengers survive? Even though they will
| reach terrifying speeds, at no point will their acceleration
| exceed a relatively gentle 9.8ms^-2
| throwaway98797 wrote:
| it gets quite warm down there.
| xpe wrote:
| More (interesting!) flaws of the 42 minute calculation are
| shown here: https://www.livescience.com/50312-how-long-to-
| fall-through-e...
|
| This approximation accounts for non-uniform density of the
| earth:
|
| > Klotz based his calculations on the internal structure of
| the planet as determined from seismic data. While the Earth's
| crust has a density less than about 187 lbs. per cubic foot
| (3 grams per cubic centimeter), Earth's center has a density
| of about 811 lbs. per cubic foot (13 grams per cubic
| centimeter). The density of the planet does not rise in a
| straightforward manner the farther down one goes -- there is
| a sharp 50 percent increase in density at the boundary of the
| planet's mantle and its outer core about 1,800 miles (2,900
| km) below Earth's surface.
|
| > Now, using a more realistic model of the Earth, Klotz finds
| the fall would take only about 38 minutes and 11 seconds,
| about 4 minutes faster than thought.
| montenegrohugo wrote:
| For Spain (my country), New Zealand is straight at the other end.
| Neat.
| gorbypark wrote:
| It took me a while to find anywhere interesting to me (Canada
| and Spain) that actually lined up. Unfortunately Valencia falls
| into the ocean, but Madrid lines up with south east coast of
| the North Island of New Zealand!
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| Nice; my "even better if" assuming this thesis project is still
| in motion:
|
| 1. Needs a "stop rotating" button (or a more prominent one if
| there is one already), especially for something that's for
| "Interactive Design Thesis"; it's a fascinating toy to play with
| but after 30 seconds of Globe rotating away from position I put
| it in, I got frustrated
|
| 2. This may be a preliminary version, but again, if a thesis for
| Interactive Design, being able to click on the globe would seem a
| pretty intuitive / expected reaction for most initial users
|
| 3. Feels like less of a "tunnel" thing and more of a "find out
| what's on the other side of the globe". It's a cool toy that sets
| incorrect and high expectations through the title/name.
|
| Otherwise, pretty neat :). Cheers and good luck!
| secondcoming wrote:
| The constantly spinning globe is infuriating UX. I'm not sure
| what the point of this is; all it does it show a chord on a
| spinning perfect sphere (which the Earth isn't)
|
| 'Thesis project'... which part of this requires a university
| education?
| cabalamat wrote:
| I looked for a way to stop it spinning but didn't find one.
| brettermeier wrote:
| You could enter app.three.controls.autoRotate=false in the
| console in the DevTools (F12).
| stavros wrote:
| > on a spinning perfect sphere (which the Earth isn't)
|
| It's pretty damn close, though, to 0.3%.
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(page generated 2021-08-26 23:02 UTC)