Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Gravity Drill
How to get at that pesky nuclear varmint
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Jim recently noticed that the fashion of hurling oneself out of a balloon from a great height, has returned...

--- The said projectile will accelerate to the speed of sound and beyond on the way down

--- In the absence of a parachute the said projectile will form a small but not indiscernible dent in the surface of the earth

--- Repeated projectile bombarment will drill a hole

Now imagine if you will, a projectile of water, frozen at great height, lofted by said balloon that melts away after said impact...

madness, Mar 26 2008

The varmint Renewable_20Nuclear_20Energy
... [madness, Mar 26 2008]

Barnes Wallis' Tallboy http://en.wikipedia...g/wiki/Tallboy_bomb
The original ground penetration weapon. Much more effective than that silly bouncing bomb thing he came up with. [wagster, Mar 26 2008]


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       --- Gradually, a small lake forms, cushioning the impact of further missiles. Rendering this inane effort moot.
DrCurry, Mar 26 2008
   

       So, wait long enough to let the water evaporate between impacts.
jutta, Mar 26 2008
   

       Even ignoring rubble from the sides falling back into the hole, it's going to be a veeeery sloooooow drill...
DrCurry, Mar 26 2008
   

       //said projectile will accelerate to the speed of sound and beyond on the way down//
Only in the upper atmosphere. The terminal velocity near the earth will be much less.
ldischler, Mar 26 2008
   

       Jim is very patient (infact he is dead)...   

       You are not concerned with the vapour pressure of water at high altitude...?
madness, Mar 26 2008
   

       ... or the effects of air friction on said block of ice? (or, in fact, a balloon that melts away - surely a bad idea?)
david_scothern, Mar 26 2008
   

       I agree with [ldischler], I only know of one object, actually a man, which dropped from a balloon and accelerated past the speed of sound, luckily for all of us water has a much lower terminal velocity. I think ice would melt from friction if it went to fast.
MisterQED, Mar 26 2008
   

       High-pressure water is already used to bore holes in things, the ground included, without the expense of huge high-altitude balloons.   

       On the subject of things dropped from great heights in order to make big holes in the ground, I read with some amusement an eye-witness account of the military dropping worn-out artillery barrells by the gross out the back of a C-130 flying at 10,000 feet over caves and bunkers in Afghanistan. It puts an entirely new spin on the notion of 'waste disposal.'
Alterother, Mar 26 2008
   

       Mister --- terminal velocity is a function of shape (and density in so much as it relates to shape). The terminal velocity of a tonne of feathers is infact less than the terminal velocity of a tonne of ice...   

       And no I am not concerned with temperature changes due to friction... What is required is that the journey up takes longer than the journey down.
madness, Mar 27 2008
   

       HHGTTG: Whale?
Ling, Mar 27 2008
   


 
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