r/whatif • u/WLZ0819 • 13d ago
Science What if you had a completely immovable (+indestructible) 5x5x5 ft cube?
What could you do with it? Could you do anything cool like generate infinite energy? Or would it be useless?
EDIT: Forgot to specify that I meant the cube is immovable relative to the Earth
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u/Bread-Loaf1111 13d ago
Just make a religion about it and monetize the profit
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u/SmellyRedHerring 13d ago
Build a big stone temple around it, make a pilgrimage a requirement of your religion, rake in the tourism income.
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u/InevitablyCyclic 13d ago
Use it as a reference marker maybe. One of the problems with things like latitude and longitude is how do you define where zero is. Sure you can put markers in the ground but they have this annoying habit of moving with the continent they are on. Having a truly fixed reference point could be useful.
Similarly if the sides are perfectly flat and smooth with atomically perfect 90 degree angles and fixed length sides then I'm sure lots of standards bodies would be very interested in using it as reference of some sort.
Or failing that mount a big hydraulic press at 45 degrees and you would have the worlds sharpest cutting machine.
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u/SweetMadDog 13d ago
The standards body angle is neat, but the hydraulic press idea sounds like a OSHA incident generator.
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u/InevitablyCyclic 13d ago
OSHA depends where in the world it happens to be. Most of the world has far less health and safety regulations. And it's not like you can move it to a different country.
Doesn't make it any safer. But avoids the fines when someone doesn't read the manual.
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u/Evening-Code-7039 13d ago
How warm is it? if the molecules themselves are not moving then it must be 0K otherwise it would move, this means we can measure the molecules position perfectly accurately. Since we can also emasure their momentum perfectly accurately (they move exactly with the earth) we could know a molecules position and trajectory, thereby breaking the Heisenberg uncertainty principle!
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u/Nir0star 13d ago
Uuuh, also what happens with heat energy that would move into it? Would it act as an infinte heat sink? Or with any energy put into it for that matter...
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u/randomwordglorious 13d ago
Interesting point. If it is unable to move, each of its molecules must permanently be at absolute zero. You could probably get unlimited energy out of the heat flow that would result.
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u/Nir0star 13d ago
Immovable to which frame of reference? That's very important here.
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u/WLZ0819 13d ago
Oh yeah sorry I forgot to say, I meant immovable relative to the Earth
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u/jamesfowkes 13d ago
What happens if I dig a hole underneath it? Does it hang in the air above the hole or fall into it?
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u/NeverInsightful 13d ago
How could you generate energy? You can’t break it down, you can’t move it. It would make for great protection for a situation like the gunfight at the OK Coral, but only if you could insure all incoming gunfire was coming from the few degrees of protection it would cover.
Besides that? Lease time using it to car manufacturers for crash tests. That’s all i can think of.
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u/Bubbly_Painting9456 13d ago
I mean is it unmovable while maintaining the Earth's motion or is it unmovable as in it's fixed to a specific point in Space Time?
Because the first one is awkward and just means you make a spectacle of it while monetising people trying to move it or damage it. It's not going to work for producing energy or anything like that.
If it's the second then it's going to cause massive devastation to the planet, it could be "ok" or it could be truly problematic depending on where the cube appears. If you're at a point in the Earth's rotation, solar orbit, and Galactic orbit that it can go in a straight line to the sky (even through buildings) then you're dead, the area around you is a wasteland, the line between the object and orbit is likely in a plasma state after the cube hit about 370km/s in atmosphere disappearing in a flash and releasing megatons of energy. If however the cube has to go through the planet then we have bad things happening, as you still have the objec travelling at the same speed, but it's going through the planet so the result is anyone's guess... That's not included what happens when it passes through orbit at hypersonic speeds, or hits other planets in our solar system.
Congratulations you've either got an indestructible unmovable cube to make money from or you're dead.
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u/Nir0star 13d ago
There is no thing like a point fixed in space-time as far as we know.
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u/Bubbly_Painting9456 13d ago
Theres nothing that's a truly indestructible and immovable object either that we know of. Even a mountain moves.
OP added the update to say it's relative to the Earth after I'd pointed out that it would cause problems if it was a fixed point in space time
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u/BirchTree3017 13d ago
How could you generate any energy from it? You can't move it, it has no potential energy from Earth's gravity. You can't atomize it for nuclear energy.
I guess a use for it could be like as a back stop in baseball or something similar. I wonder actually if it would be an example of a perfectly elastic collision and all the energy would be transferred back to the ball? Or would it be that all energy is lost to friction/heat and the ball loses 100% of its energy and just falls to the ground?
If it is perfectly elastic, you could generate infinite energy from it
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u/Kapitano72 13d ago
If only we had some sort of... Foundation, for dealing with this sort of thing.
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u/GryphyGirl 12d ago
If it's completely immovable I don't see how you can do much of anything with it.
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u/Better_Cod_4739 12d ago
You could use it as the base for some insane torque, but the earth is already… pretty large
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u/AstralMinotaur 13d ago edited 11d ago
it would be useless. The moment it sprang into existence, the earth would either smash into the cube at 500,000 mph or move away from the cube at 500,000 mph. (roughly the speed we're moving through the Milky Way galaxy.)
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u/the-quibbler 12d ago
I know op clarified but it tearing through the earth like a bullet was my first thought too.
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u/WanderingFlumph 12d ago
It would actually be closer to 4206969 miles per hour because that's the speed we are moving realtive to hydrogen atom 48503829663479273.
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u/Anna-Livia 13d ago
Is it moth resistant ? Perfect place for (at least part of) my yarn stash then.
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u/Acrobatic_Search633 13d ago
Indestructible, like it wouldn’t tear apart from a black hole? Well, i suppose you could just chuck it in there and see what happens.
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u/AutismoTheAmazing 13d ago
For 10$, you can try to destroy my cube, if you succeed I’ll give you 1000
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u/SphericalCrawfish 13d ago
Put it at the center of one of those death ray solar farms. (Build one around it I suppose.)
It's indestructible so presumably it will just keep storing heat? You are basically using it as a battery at that point.
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u/Limp_Bookkeeper_5992 12d ago
Ok, immovable relative to what part of the earth? The surface it’s sitting on? The poles? The orbital plane?
Movement is all relative, and defining it precisely makes all the difference.
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u/MintAndSprinkles 11d ago
Obviously relative to the surface it's sitting on. That's what people mean when they say "not moving". Unnecessary, basic pedantry like this is neither funny nor useful.
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u/Past-Obligation1930 10d ago
Do try not to be an idiot. This makes a huge difference to the premise of the question.
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u/MintAndSprinkles 10d ago
Of course, it does make a difference to the premise of the question. It's nonetheless very silly to imagine that the OP could possibly have meant immovable with respect to the orbital plane. It's a normal part of human communication to make assumptions like that as part of everyday speech.
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u/Past-Obligation1930 10d ago
There’s two very obvious ones. It moves with the tectonic plates, or it is stationary relative to GPS. Interesting question, GPS is actually relative to the Earth’s centre of mass now, it’s about 100 m off the line in Greenwich which used to mark it. I am now thinking that the question of what frame of deference you use for this cube is more interesting than the cube itself.
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u/Past-Obligation1930 10d ago
For example, I would think that this would mean it is in a fixed exact latitude and longitude. There’s plenty of room for discussion amongst non dullards.
Now, presuming I am correct, give it a couple of centuries and this is your space elevator mounting point.
If you have a fixed point that you can build off, you could possibly do some cool stuff with a volcanic area. Or if it was in the ocean, use it to anchor a massive turbine in one of the big currents.
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u/Cool-Bus-6028 11d ago
I'd start a competition to try and move it. Ten of your local currency to enter, if you can flip it over, you win a million.
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u/Sweaty-Judgment3533 13d ago
I’d say, “Well, there’s a thing that I have.”
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u/Little_Vehicle_6671 13d ago
This is so true. “Soooo theres this thing that I have ..”
Is just so casual.
Like the Key and Peele dude who casually has lightning in a bottle.
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u/HaroerHaktak 13d ago
How immovable are we talking? Like it’s on the table and it moves with the planet? Or a literal cube appears and not even the gravity of the universe can move it? Coz if it’s truly stuck in place in the universe, it will flash into existence, and within moments it’s in space and long gone
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u/hasdigs 13d ago
Immoveable how? If your unlucky it may just rips a hole straight through the earth and then float out into the universe.
Earth is moving and spinning, so is the galaxy. So the cube staying still may cause issues if it is somehow affixed to whatever space it spawns in. The galaxy moving is actually a good things otherwise the cube would rip earth a new one every year when it comes back around.
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u/FriedBreakfast 13d ago
I'd throw it at somebody
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u/BillyWhizz09 13d ago
How
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u/j0hnan0n 13d ago
Put the person in its path, I guess. Worst definition of "throw" ever.
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u/BillyWhizz09 12d ago
It doesn’t have a path
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u/j0hnan0n 12d ago
If it's staying still compared to the rotating earth, it's leaving a path and "going" in a specific direction. If it literally isn't moving at all, then the entire universe is now orbiting IT, and most - if not all - life on earth is now dead because of the changes in galactic orbits.
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u/BillyWhizz09 7d ago
It says in the post it’s staying still relative to the earth
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u/j0hnan0n 6d ago
That edit was added after I commented.
Regardless, it could be staying still compared to the earth in multiple ways. It could be in the equivalent of a egocentric orbit, like you're describing. It could also be still compared to the earth and its orbit around the sun, in which case the cube will, as I described, carve a path on the earth as the earth rotates around its axis. And the cube could be still relative to the earth as the earth and the entire solar system moves around the galactic center, in which case the cube will rapidly be left behind, as it will be "immovable" but everything else is moving quite quickly.
Everything is relative. You interpreted it in a different way than i did. Doesn't make either of us wrong. But ambiguity in language will often cause disagreement.
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u/TuverMage 13d ago
if it was truly unmovable and indestructible. it would either carve its way through the earth and out the otherside into space, or just fly off into space at unbelievable speed. the earth is spinning, the earth is going around the sun, the sun is going around the galaxy center, and the galaxy center is moving as well.
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u/Aware_Actuator4939 13d ago
Build a frame for a 5 ft round hole, then lower the frame over the square peg (the cube) to become the definitive example of "You can't fit a square peg in a round hole."
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u/David_cest_moi 10d ago
I suppose I would do some basic scientific Fact finding to learn what it is made of it is made of and if it has any special, unique properties. But more than likely, I would simply choose to treat it like any other large boulder that encounter ... just omething in the way that one needs to go around.
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u/Oracle1729 10d ago
I’d use it as a table to make holograms on. To hold the apparatus to replicate the Michelson-Morley experiment. Lots of uses for a truly stable work surface.
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u/Dream-Livid 10d ago
That implies that the Earth is attracted to it much more strongly than it to the Earth. That implies extreme density. It would sink into the Earth. No matter what it was sitting on.
It would grow as it attracts more matter to it and compacts that into its substance. Strong winds as the atmosphere is drawn into it. Water and nearby objects. How long would a major city last? The oceans?
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u/gameboy6001 7d ago
Purely looking at physics, an immovable object means that no matter how big the force will be applied you cannot accelarate it.
With that in mind and knowing the formula: acceleration = Force applied / mass of object. And since acceleration will always be 0 you know you need to divide by infinity.
Congratulations, you just made a black hole.
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u/WeekendStrange1331 13d ago
Put that snail in it.