What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions

Question: “What would happen if the Earth and all terrestrial objects suddenly stopped spinning, but the atmosphere retained its velocity?” (1).

For a short period, most of the world would suffer hypersonic windstorms—1,000 miles per hour at the equator—that would destroy most buildings and kill nearly everyone.

At the north and south poles, where the winds would be much slower, and in underground tunnels, people would be ok. However, because the Earth has stopped moving, the sun would bake the day side, causing massive storms that convection would push toward the cold night side.

The Moon would continue to revolve around the planet; eventually, its effects on the Earth’s ocean tides would cause the Earth slowly to begin spinning again.

Question: “What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light?” (7).

If it were possible, such a pitch would travel at 600 million miles an hour. Air molecules in the path would either pass through the ball entirely or fuse with the atoms on the ball’s surface, releasing atomic energy. When the ball reaches home plate, it’s an expanding fireball of ionized atoms that incinerates the ballpark and everything for a mile around it.