What would happen if...

[Jimmy Ray]

What would happen if you covered the entire earth with a mile thick layer of say rock or steel (possibly material collected from the asteroid belt or other moons/planets) then built a giant, structure on the north pole area. this structure would be large enough to easily see from space. Large like 1/3 the height of the earth added on top. A giant mountain more than a building.

 

Anyone want to wager a guess what if anything would happen regaurding gravity, orbit, rotation or anything else.

 

Thanks from Jimmy Ray

[Jimmy Ray]

The reason I ask is I had a dream about a future earth that looked the way i mentioned in my last post. i was wondering if it were even a possibility.

 

 

any insights would be welcomed

[-Demosthenes-]

Part of this structure on at the north pole should probably be out of the atmosphere, and I'd bet (being 1/3 again the height of the earth!) should (I'd think) serverly change rotational and revolutional patters of the earth and other things near the earth, like the moon.

The mile thick of metal on top of the earth's surface would add to mass, size, and density, but I don't know how much when relative to the whole earth. I'm sure it would change something.

It's very interesting. You had this in a dream? What were the structure and the metal for?

[Jimmy Ray]

the reason for the mile thick seal around the earth is that somewhere in the past (of the dream) earth lost its electromagnetic field, so they built the bio-sphere (thats what i call it) to hold in earths natural resources. also it is a form of protection against WMD. years went by and the started building big building/mountain in the polar region as the first building above the bio-sphere. therefore the first with windows. so at the time of the dream the atmostphere was completly gone. it may have been around the year 10 000.

 

i am considering writting a sci-fi novel about so i'm trying to figure out if something like this would even be possible. i don't want a story that is too far fetched.

 

jimmy ray

[Xyph]

I'm not sure the mile thick seal would make too much of a difference - it would increase the overall mass of the planet, which would, maybe, slow down the rotation a small bit, but it would be that gigantic structure on the north pole that would make the real difference.

 

I don't know how quickly this would happen, but I expect the Earth would begin to tilt until it's axis was at 90 degrees - what was the north pole would become the equator, and that giant structure would be jutting out into space and whirling around the Earth as it turns. This would probably slow down the Earth's rotation pretty significantly, although I don't know exactly how long it would take for it to finish slowing either, or what it's eventual day length would be.

[Xyph]

Oh, and another thing, that structure would need to be made of some sort of exotic superstrong material, otherwise it would be crushed by the Earth's rotation and the gravity, if not torn apart and flung into space. If that happened, the change in rotation wouldn't be so drastic, but there'd probably still be one.

[Rincewind SW]

Very odd. Obviously the orbit would be greatly affected because of the shift in the centre of gravity, as would rotation. With the newly shaped planet wouldn't the structure be destroyed? However it doesn't make sense for the thing to be built if everyone would suffocate. Also I would be greatly surprised if there was enough iron on Earth to make a steel layer. Unless there are the necessary metals on other nearby planets. I think a novel would have to go into the lives of some other race unless humans had simply migrated to a new planet... perhaps I'm not understanding you properly

[Jimmy Ray]

It seems clear that a super-massive structure sitting atop the earth would be much more problems that it would be worth. thanks

 

Jimmy Ray

[arkain101]

What you are describing to me sounds like a giant boobie. It seems to me that you are starting to develope an affection for the shape of a breast lol.

 

so at the time of the dream the atmostphere was completly gone. it may have been around the year 10 000.

 

I had a very similar dream not long ago. Although, mine would seem the events before that time. I dreamt or more had visions of some kind of gigantic ship or somthing came to earth. Although I didnt get to see it because it did not enter the atmosphere and during the day I guess clouds or the blue sky blocked the vision of it.. but what did happen was this very very large tube that was had a cube shape at the very bottom of it. It was probably about the size of a large city or small island. As it came down it began sucking the atomsphere away. Things all around the world started exploading from the drop in atmospheric pressure. The weather became intensely violent. But I was informed what to do somehow.. I had the memory of where to go, which led me to this door with that let us into a room where I pushed some buttons and I recall being tossed around in hurricane conditions and tornadoes but we lived. Then I was shown the vacume starting to suck up the water aswell. It looked very hi tech and very detailed. The material it was made out of was like nothing I have seen before. It was very smooth and shiny with a dark color to it and no bolts or hoses.

Whereever I was with a few other people in this room we crashed somewhere in the bushes near a town. I stood up from the reckage and a bug which I think was an ant was shown to me. Then this ant was enlarged much bigger than me and I started to feel small. Then after a moment things returned back to normal sizes again and the bug was gone and it was hard to breath. I realized at that moment we are not alone and we are so small in the big picture of the universe.

Then emergency ran through my head and there was this urge to figure out a survival technique before it was too late. The dream ended like a video. Then I clearly recall moving onto a much more regular dream with things I knew of like trucks and people I knew.