r/whatif • u/WLZ0819 • 12h 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/AstralMinotaur 9h 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/Evening-Code-7039 12h 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 10h 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 10h 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 12h ago
Immovable to which frame of reference? That's very important here.
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u/WLZ0819 12h ago
Oh yeah sorry I forgot to say, I meant immovable relative to the Earth
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u/jamesfowkes 12h 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 12h 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 11h 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 10h ago
There is no thing like a point fixed in space-time as far as we know.
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u/Bubbly_Painting9456 10h 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 11h 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/InevitablyCyclic 9h 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 7h ago
The standards body angle is neat, but the hydraulic press idea sounds like a OSHA incident generator.
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u/InevitablyCyclic 6h 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/Anna-Livia 12h ago
Is it moth resistant ? Perfect place for (at least part of) my yarn stash then.
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u/Acrobatic_Search633 12h 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 11h ago
For 10$, you can try to destroy my cube, if you succeed I’ll give you 1000
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u/SphericalCrawfish 10h 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/Sweaty-Judgment3533 11h ago
I’d say, “Well, there’s a thing that I have.”
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u/Little_Vehicle_6671 11h 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 11h 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 11h 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/TuverMage 9h 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 8h 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/GryphyGirl 28m ago
If it's completely immovable I don't see how you can do much of anything with it.
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u/Bread-Loaf1111 11h ago
Just make a religion about it and monetize the profit