Submitted by Nicebruhh t3_yfxbrr in Showerthoughts
gaardsund t1_iu66j8o wrote
It is quite facinating when you think about it!
Also that you can connect two side of the globe faster sending a signal via space (starlink for example) than fiber optics underground even though the distance is greater.
SpaceWanderer22 t1_iu68i4d wrote
Simply because of light traveling slower in fiber optics than a vacuum?
If you cut straight through the earth, that would. Change the equation.
PandaCL t1_iu6ht27 wrote
That would be hella expensive
SpaceWanderer22 t1_iu6j5eo wrote
I wonder at what point in the future it will be even possible? Probanly quite a long time. Right now, even if the entire GDP of earth was funneled into it, I'm sure they wouldn't be able to do it.
rumbake t1_iu6jlkm wrote
It'd never be done, pretty sure you'd possibly screw up the magnetic fields around earth in some way. Also we never know if the magma sharks have lasers, considering the undersea cable was attacked by sharks we can't take this risk.
madsci t1_iu75nlw wrote
Short answer, no.
A quick Google search tells me that the lithostatic pressure in the lower mantle is something like 24 gigapascals, and the strongest high-performance concrete in the world can handle 1% of that.
And that's not even considering the temperature, which starts at around 1000 C.
SpaceWanderer22 t1_iu76a4f wrote
Plus the inner core is a 1500 mile diameter sphere of a solid iron alloy.
At some point it'll probably be possible, but I'd imagine that's pretty far future territory.
madsci t1_iu76wbb wrote
If we ever get to that point, I suspect we'll already be building planet-scale megastructures and won't have any need to be boring holes through the Earth.
SpaceWanderer22 t1_iu77hqx wrote
Agreed, why drill a difficult hole when you could build a Dyson sphere? My main point was just considering what level of technology it would require to actually accomplish the feat.
It is possible though that some unexpected mechanism would make it more feasible than expected, and communication straight through the planet would have some serious benefits. Especially if it was a straight hole, and light was sent directly through it, without even using a fiber optic cable.
[deleted] t1_iu6uvoz wrote
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madsci t1_iu75ti3 wrote
Because of the speed of light. In fiber optics it moves at something like 70% of the speed it does in a vacuum.
Maybe someday we can use neutrinos for communication and not worry about having the Earth in the way.
SpaceWanderer22 t1_iu775i7 wrote
Interesting discussion of neutrino communication: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/199606/is-neutrino-based-communication-possible
madsci t1_iu7ak1z wrote
Interesting, thanks! That's really impressive. If they could get it to a reasonable size, 0.1 bits/second still has real value for a use case like nuclear submarines when you just need to say "fire ze missiles" or "surface and establish a high-bandwidth connection".
SpaceWanderer22 t1_iu7b3tx wrote
That's a very good point. I had never thought about the difficulty of communicating with sub-- it makes sense that it's really hard though, with such a large volume of water. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines
gaardsund t1_iu6nl8w wrote
Yes excatly, apparently quite a lot faster in vaccum!
rpsls t1_iu8a6rv wrote
Also because on the ground you need more switches to route around everything, while in space you can theoretically do it in fewer satellite-to-satellite hops.
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