Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@da-x

da-x/Uranium.md

Last active October 3, 2015 07:32
Show Gist options
  • Save da-x/eae2105e0deb476fee2d to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save da-x/eae2105e0deb476fee2d to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Download ZIP
How much Uranium is needed to stop the Earth from rotating, ballpark
Raw
Uranium.md

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotational_energy

E = Earth's rotational kinetic energy is: 2.138×10^29 J.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density

D = Energy density of uranium: 1,539,842,000 MJ/L

Calculate: ((E/(D*1,000,000))^(1/3.0))/10 meters

Enter in Python: round(((2.138E29)/(1539842000E6))**(1/3.0)/10) = 5178.0

Conclusion:

To stop the rotation of the Earth using uranium as a power source for an electric engine, you need at least a cube-size chunk of uranium of 5 kilometers in size.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment