this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2024
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Ghosts (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 months ago by lawrence to c/comicstrips
 
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[–] Geek_King 39 points 4 months ago (3 children)

With the Earth's elliptical orbit, momentum would only get you so far in terms of sticking with the planet.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

relative to the galactic central point, per Eric Idle, the earth would be 200k/125 miles away in a single second, or relative to everything in the universe / background radiation, it would be 23,000 miles (37,000 km) away in a single second.

Preserving momentum in different directions and you quickly double it

Assuming an even rate of death, that's just under 2 people dying per second currently, so you wouldn't even be able to see the people who died before or after you if you retained human senses as a ghost.

[–] Bookmeat 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If this were true we could then actually use ghosts to determine the "true" universal reference frame, right?

[–] blanketswithsmallpox 4 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

Even with a circular orbit, if you're unbound by gravity you'll follow a straight path while the Earth curves, resulting in it appearing to accelerate away from you.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Yeah they would go flying off into space relative to earth but I was more referring to the idea that they’d somehow become stationary due to being immune to gravity. That wouldn’t be sufficient on its own.