Fastest object made by humans

Jan 10, 2021 12:32 AM

Blaaaaaaaargh

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The fastest manmade object isn't a hypersonic jet or spacecraft, but a large manhole cover.... When the US started doing underground nuclear testing, nobody really knew what would happen. One test bomb was placed at the bottom of a 485-foot deep shaft on July 26, 1957, and someone thought it was a good idea to put a half-ton iron manhole cover on top to contain the explosion. The bomb turned the shaft into the world's largest Roman candle, and the manhole cover was nowhere to be found. Robert Brownlee, an astrophysicist who designed the test, wanted to repeat the experiment with high-speed cameras so he could figure out what happened to the cover. So another experiment was created, this time 500-feet deep, and a similar half-ton manhole cover was placed on top. On August 27, 1957, they detonated the bomb. The high-speed cameras barely caught a view of the cover as it left the top of the shaft and headed into oblivion. Brownlee used the frames to calculate the speed to be more than 125,000 miles per hour.... more than five times the escape velocity of the Earth, and the fastest man-made object in history.
Physicists have debated the whereabouts of the two manhole covers ever since. Recently, with the help of supercomputers and a lot more scientific knowledge, physicists are certain that they wouldn't have had time to burn up completely before exiting the atmosphere. This means both of the remaining pieces would have passed Pluto's orbit sometime around 1961 and are way beyond the edge of the solar system by now.
Keith Anderson, 2019

Debunked.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I thought Taco bell was the fastest .

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

If the covers were blown out during daytime, wouldn’t they be headed towards the sun rather than away from it?

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are not happy

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The idea of man made objects out in the universe which has probably never had anything man made in it before is thrilling to me.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Something something immortal snail

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

v

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Eehhm... there are some space probes that move with several kilometers a second.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Almost every one of the nearly 6000 satellites orbiting earth is moving that fast. Probes are often doing tens of kilometers per second.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

If I remember correctly, one of the Voyagers moves about 16 km/s right now.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

*Turns on a flashlight*

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

In 2015 Brownlee said I have no idea what happened to the cap but I always assumed that it was probably vaporized before it went into space

5 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 2

Can we use this same concept to get to Mars?

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

5 years ago | Likes 15 Dislikes 4

The fastest man made object was created in my digestive tract by a combination of arby's and white castles.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Hey OP. Stop spreading lies and myths. This is the kind of stuff that created a bunch of trump idiots.

5 years ago | Likes 20 Dislikes 1

obligatory

5 years ago | Likes 43 Dislikes 22

This again? Who's gonna debunk it this time?

5 years ago | Likes 30 Dislikes 1

5 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 1

VERNE SHOT!

5 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

v

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

v

5 years ago | Likes 35 Dislikes 5

Made up nonsense @OP.

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

v

5 years ago | Likes 416 Dislikes 10

Perfect.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

How does this seem to work with like 90% of imgur posts. Maybe someone can research that for us. Anyway, here's your upvote.

5 years ago | Likes 16 Dislikes 0

5 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

5 years ago | Likes 29 Dislikes 2

v

5 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 1

v

5 years ago | Likes 22 Dislikes 2

v

5 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 1

v

5 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

STOP POSTING THIS MYTH.

5 years ago | Likes 228 Dislikes 7

Nu uh it’s on Imgur so it HAS to be true!

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

No u

5 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 4

At least if it's fake its harmless , fun , politically benefits no-one and doesnt discredit science since It could hypothetically be true

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 4

Can we, as a culture, come together and say: fuck that. Misinformation, whether maligned or otherwise, needs to fuck off for good.

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

What a fantasy! that humans would ever come together as one, let alone do that. Heck theyd have to unanimously agree to forbid all religions

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

But... But... It's all the democrats fault in cahoots with BLM, ANTIFA... Hilary emails...

5 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 21

Stop

5 years ago | Likes 11 Dislikes 2

BUT THE EMAILS

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 7

Its not a myth, its just unconfirmed. The math is plausible but there is no way to actually prove it.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 10

Well there is one way

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Repeat the experiment

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Except the part about being the fastest man made object, which goes to the matter, anti matter pairs travelling at almost the speed of light

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

And as said in other comments, there are also after spacecraft... So even moving the goal posts doesn't work.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Did they find the cap? The article doesn't say. It just points out that the math was a flippant guess, not that the story is a myth.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 4

Well, let me know when they find some evidence that it is in fact hurtling through the cosmos.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Why exactly do you think we launched voyager 2?......we want our friggin manhole cover back.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Ugh, this is MADE UP, and even it it wasn't, the Helio 2 Probe broke that record.

5 years ago | Likes 692 Dislikes 10

It's fake news!

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

It's a compelling story which is probably why it has persevered. +1 to you -1 to the false story.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Anything reported as “fact” by Karl Pilkington should be researched. Heavily.

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

It still would hold the record for fastest object within the atmosphere, so at least there's that

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

This is why I love you guys

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

And the Parker Solar Probe went much faster again, having reached 690,000km/h (430,000mph), or 192km/s

5 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 1

I was incorrect. That's Parker's velocity at closest approach in 2024. It has "only" reached 129km/s (464,000km/h, 288,000mph) so far.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Headline linked below said it didn't happen, but then concludes it could have?

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Why are you saying it was made up and the following that up with 'even if it wasnt'?

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 3

"Even if it wasn't made up."

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I get that. So you're saying 'its fake, and even if it wasn't...'. how about don't say something is fake or not if you don't know?

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

It was fake.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

They're saying even if it wasn't fake, the claim that is the fasted manmade object would be false anyway.

5 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

This

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Fuck. Had a good laugh reading it anyway.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The whip/bullwhip was the first man made device that broke the sound barrier.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Thats sad, would have been pretty cool if it wasn’t though

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Made up by Dr. Robert R. Brownlee the scientist in charge of the testing, Operation Plumbob, Test shot Pascal-B, or is that fake news

5 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

He talked about it in like the early 2000s, he didn't "make it up" like the anti-vaccine study, he was giving a smart-ass answer.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Seems like everytime it gets posted someone goes nuh uh and brings up that one article. Ignoring the dozens of research papers and records

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Yeah but those were his own words. He wasn't tasked with that, these were the first nuclear bomb tests. He had bigger fish to fry than 1/

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Some secondary calculation.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Thanks. We need to hold liars and people sharing false information accountable- even for stuff like this.

5 years ago | Likes 36 Dislikes 1

When we hold them accountable. What is their sentence?

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Seemingly not down votes.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Uh, its not false. Its known to have traveled a minimum of 125,000 miles per hour, there's video. What happened after that we don't know.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Also even if it was. Manhole vs Nuke pressure , nuke pressure wins. Manhole would break in half at the very least

5 years ago | Likes 58 Dislikes 2

In an essay by Brownlee he reiterates that metal cap did fly off, as captured by high speed cameras.

5 years ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 1

yeah, went looking for the first, never found it. caught a bit of the 2nd on high speed and calculated it had escape velocity

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

Not a 2000lb one

5 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 2

Okay, perhaps that instead breaks into 3

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Yes a 2000lb one. A car ways more

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

When it's experiencing 6.7million g's of acceleration, yeah it's definitely breaking apart.

5 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

It was several inches thick. Most likely teardropped shaped blob shooting out of solar system.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 2

Nope, tear-shaped blob being vaporised moments later

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

2000lbs!? That's a ton!

5 years ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 0

1000lbs, they say half-ton multiple times.

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

It was a 900kg steel plate, which is approximately 2,000lb

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

But it clearly says "half ton iron manhole cover" in the reading above.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Yep, high speed camera from 1957...

5 years ago | Likes 70 Dislikes 7

That would be Doc Edgerton's area who is the father of strobe photography. Designed the A bomb's detonator in order to take cool pics

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

1/They're considerably older than that. They've been used for ballistics research for quite some time. The camera itself is stationary,

5 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

2/2 and a set of rotating mirrors are used to capture the motion

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

They existed.

5 years ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

They did exist. Would take a 100 foot real of film and dump it in a bag in about of second. Doesn't mean this story is real tho.

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

The olde tyme cameras I used (photosonics and stalex just used a magazine. And yes, they burned through film for only a few usable frames.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Air recon used high speed cameras in W2 ?

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I don't get what you're saying. Yes, spinning mirror high speed cameras were capable of 1M FPS in the 50s

5 years ago | Likes 38 Dislikes 0

Yes hence 1st slow motion atom bomb videos. The quality is so low and recorded from so far away tho you wouldn't be able to see the cover.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Now you are being mean to Doc Edgerton

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Well if the shaft was at the bottom of the ocean... Yea I could see it being plausible. Story checks out.

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Correct. They were taking pictures at the instant of fusion, 7 years earlier, actually. See above.

5 years ago | Likes 14 Dislikes 0

but the story is bullshit since no object could tumble through the atmosphere over 150mach

5 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

True, the centrifugal force of it spinning would cause it to rip itself apart

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

The secondary and more accepted conclusion was that it vaporized on detonation or ascension.

5 years ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 0

Sure it could... just not for very long.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

I hate clickbait piece of shit websites like that. 90% ads and 10% maybes with no sources. Just because it's on the internet etc

5 years ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

Went down this rabbit hole once before

5 years ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

Nowhere does this say it isn't true, only that the scientist was criticized for not taking certain factors into account. The velocity is-

5 years ago | Likes 10 Dislikes 0

Thank you

5 years ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

still accurate. If it made it into orbit, or even stayed in one piece, is questionable but not outright refuted by these sources.

5 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

Oh, and the Parker Solar probe broke the Helios 2's record.

5 years ago | Likes 46 Dislikes 1

Really cool

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Space dot!

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Thanks for actual information!

5 years ago | Likes 9 Dislikes 0

Did not realize Juno was that fast

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Decent rabbit hole, thanks for that

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Dot for fastest object ever created by human. Exploration of space.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0