this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2025
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Okay, just back of the envelope math. Assuming the car is truly 550nm, so the blue car is 400nm, and the red car is 700nm... How fast is the car going?
Napkin math says 0.27c.
Δλ=λ(V/c)
Now someone else can figure out the kinetic energy of the car and why the whole continent just exploded...
Why explode, the car didn't accelerate or interact with the continent
Even ignoring the tires interacting with the road, you have air molecules. I don't think that would be enough to destroy a continent, but it would be very destructive.
Here is a cool What If? from xkcd about throwing a baseball at 0.9c.
Sound like a ton worth of mass would do a lot of damage indeed
Wow, that seems to be the very first What If ever!
For the same reason this baseball causes an expanding plasma-ball disintegrating everything. Fusion with air molecules that can't get out of the way fast enough https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/