http://rjlibera.edublogs.org/2008/09/22/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-calculate-it/ Another excellent Edublogs.org weblog Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:04:55 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 http://rjlibera.edublogs.org/2008/09/22/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-calculate-it/comment-page-1/#comment-4 pcfragile Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:27:07 +0000 http://rjlibera.edublogs.org/?p=5#comment-4 Your calculation does a good job of highlighting one of the real issues in this problem: the kinetic energy of the asteroid is HUGE, 100 billion times larger than the energy of a very large nuclear bomb! That makes finding a solution difficult. You also identify the best ally we have (hopefully): time. If we deflect an asteroid or comet early enough, we don't have to deflect it by much. Your calculation does a good job of highlighting one of the real issues in this problem: the kinetic energy of the asteroid is HUGE, 100 billion times larger than the energy of a very large nuclear bomb! That makes finding a solution difficult. You also identify the best ally we have (hopefully): time. If we deflect an asteroid or comet early enough, we don’t have to deflect it by much.

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