Slowest speed

[Quinney91]

what is the slowest speed a known object can travel at in m/s?

[another-view]

Zero.

and the next dumb question is...

[Quinney91]

well thats not traveling then is it, duh.

[another-view]

0.000000000...to infinity...00001 m/s then dimwit.

[joggerjayne]

1 / (infinity - 1) mph

[Quinney91]

emphasis on the slowest KNOWN object

[another-view]

What are you talking about?

A man pushing a shopping trolley could travel at that speed if he so wished.

[JonnyBoy12]

I think it may be the pace your brain works, if this question is anything to go by, but we do know that the speed the continents drift apart is the same speed as your fingers grow. Not sure what that is in m/s though. It is about 1 inch per year.

My friend always uses the expression "like a snail on sedatives" when he means something is moving very slowly, but not sure what that speed is either.

[Quinney91]

thats the sort of answer i was looking for, thanks!

[joggerjayne]

Sorry Quinney91 ...

... you mean Whiffy's car !!

[another-view]

Johnnyboy - "I think it may be the pace your brain works, if this question is anything to go by,"

Quinney - "thats the sort of answer i was looking for, thanks!"


lol

[joggerjayne]

Jonny, how in the name of G did they measure the fact that the continents move apart by an inch a year?

And does that mean that the continents on the other side are moving together at the same rate?

[Jugglering]

Sorry Jayne.. but I have actually been in Whiff's car.. he let me drive (I've got a tad more insurance than him lol, plus I'm better at driving..).... the Lotus was absolutely gorgeous to drive... talk about greased weasel sh*t... lol...shame we weren't on the Autobahn... somehow the M3 doesn't have quite the same attributes :) (nor does it take us from Surrey to Glasgow and back again).

I have just driven back from Scottyland and am a tad kernackered, so please excuse me if I don't stay on line too long !

[JonnyBoy12]

At a very early age I found,
That nothing at all was ever sound,
Subject to disease, rust and decay,
It burned, or moved or fell away,
In order to gain peace of mind,
A solid rock I strived to find,
In Earth's landmass I gained my lift,
But then came Continental Drift.

c. JonnyBoy12 (1992)

Sorry, JJ, just wondered off there, in response to your question I do not know how they measured the speed, but they just said it is moving at that speed.

See above for my vain poetic attempt to avert this threat on our supposed very symbol of permanence.

[dundurn]

Jayne, they have very accurate measuements across the Atlantic. Actually the North Atlantic is pretty immobile (although South Iceland gets a little bigger, North Iceland refuses to play the game). The South Atlantic is going faster, however. The speed isn't constant. it slows down and speeds up occasionally, insofar as you can consider an extra millimetre or two "speeding". And yes, the Pacific is contracting at pretty much the same rate, hence all the subduction zones around its edges and the proliferation of volcanoes in the "ring of fire". There is also a tendency for North America to stretch sideways a little (Yosemite Valley's geysers are evidence of a supervolcano waiting to erupt) so the Pacific may be getting smaller faster than the Atlantic is growing.

[chakka35]

Quite apart from the inanity of the original question, I wonder how JonnyBoy manages with those amazingly long fingers of his.

[squarebear]

lol true. By the time he is 40, his fingers will be 40 inches long!