Werid physics question

[Evan]

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I think its akin to having a bunch of pennies in a big jar

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I think the pennies would be several orders of magnitude stronger.

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seperately, obv, but take a handfull of those straws, and try to bend them all at the same time, they are pretty strong when packed together.

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Yes I understand that they will gain strength, but I don't think they'll be anywhere near as strong as the pennies would. I imagine the pennies in this spot, if I jumped on them from 10 ft., would basically be like concrete.

[JimDrang]

You could walk on them most likely.

[NutzyClutz]

I would bet you would hurt alot from the 10 foot fall.
Imagine a jumbo box of rice crispies with prize on bottom, it's hard but not impossible to wiggle your hand to bottom, but box helps the process by bowing. Same for cheerios and wheaties. Even if you wound up for punch into the box, it still wont get you to bottom without wiggling your hand to bottom.

[gumpzilla]

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Where did you get that idea? I just think it's funny (and kind of awesome) that several people understood and found humor in a joke about blue-shifting.

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The laughing at people laughing at the joke has kind of a snotty ring to it. Sorry if you didn't mean it that way.

[suzzer99]

My guess is that if the hole is just randomly filled, the straws will tend to align themselves in horizontal layers. Think about what happens when you grab a hunk of straws and throw them out on a table. This would be the start of the process and my guess is that pressure from below would tend to make the majority of the straws want to flatten out.

Within these layers would be blocks of straws (10-20ish) actually failry nicely aligned with each other (as they would be in a box) but at odd angles within the horizontal layer, and various rogue straws overlayed or shooting vertically or mixed in on any kind of angle. This layering with the rougue straws would tend to create a very dense arrangement, which would also be fairly resistant to penetration by something as wide as a human foot, much less splayed out body. So after the first 3-6 inches of layers splattered out of the way, the compression on the lower layers would tend to solidify them and create a very bouncy effect.

Also if you did somehow sink to the bottom--say the straws had all been perfectly aligned somehow--I think you could still pretty easily claw your way out by stepping and crushing groups of straws and grabbing and crushing groups of straws in your hands, then throwing them underneath you - until you had a nice base of crushed crap to stand on. Or you could always do like the guys in Strange Brew and eat your way out.


PS - I have a BS in physics which means very little here.

[Klompy]

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I think its akin to having a bunch of pennies in a big jar

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I think the pennies would be several orders of magnitude stronger.

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seperately, obv, but take a handfull of those straws, and try to bend them all at the same time, they are pretty strong when packed together.

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if the straws are all lined up you dont have to bend the straws, you have to squeeze them. This is why I asked how wide the hole is because if the hole is 5 feet wide you'd never fall through because there's not enough straws for you to compress, but if the hole is larger then I think there's a chance of you getting a little ways down the pit, but not all that far.

[gamblore99]

the straws will support you. Think of a pit filled with sand. Yes the straws will be packed less densley, but they will still give eachother a lot of support. I guess you will compress them a bit, but not sink.