What if NASCAR had no rules?

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  • Опубліковано 18 гру 2023
  • Get a copy of What If? 2 and Randall’s other books at: xkcd.com/books
    More serious answers to absurd questions at: what-if.xkcd.com/
    What if you ignored all the rules of car racing and had a contest which was simply to get a human being around a track 200 times as fast as possible. What strategy would win? Let’s say the racer has to survive.
    Randall Munroe is the author of the New York Times bestsellers What If? 2, How To, What If?, and Thing Explainer; the science question-and-answer blog What If?; and the popular web comic xkcd (xkcd.com). A former NASA roboticist, he left the agency in 2006 to draw comics on the internet full time.
    Henry Reich is the creator of MinutePhysics and executive producer of MinuteEarth and MinuteFood and founder of Neptune Studios (the parent company for all three youtube channels).
    Credits
    Narrated by and based on "What If?" by Randall Munroe
    Written & Directed by Henry Reich
    Illustration and Video Editing by Lizah van der Aart
    Illustration and Animation by Ever Salazar
    Music & Sound Effects by Know Art Studios
    What If? The Video Series is the official adaptation of the What If? books by Randall Munroe and is produced by Neptune Studios LLC.
    ©2023 xkcd, inc.
  • Наука та технологія

КОМЕНТАРІ • 1,6 тис.

  • @smartereveryday
    @smartereveryday 5 місяців тому +8279

    The major innovation here is the driver seat gimbal to make sure the accelerations are always "Eyeballs In".

    • @yschroder
      @yschroder 5 місяців тому +283

      That seems like a good classification of virtually all what if? experiments: eyeballs in or eyeballs out. Mostly it is out though...

    • @nicklachen5060
      @nicklachen5060 5 місяців тому +201

      This is a tatic in some sci-fy novels for ships so they can do crazy meanuevurs in space/atmospheres. The most recent I've that uses this is the Skyward Series by Brandon Sanderson (book #1 is called Starsight). Pretty neat. He consulted with pilots with his ship design and had to redo the whole cockpit basically so the fights he wanted to be done could actually be done without the pilots dying/severe injury (though he still uses a technology to reduce the effect of very high impulse).

    • @devynnagy2707
      @devynnagy2707 5 місяців тому +19

      Hey Destin!

    • @Krissco2
      @Krissco2 5 місяців тому +5

      Laces out! No wait, eyeballs in!

    • @alexortiz9777
      @alexortiz9777 5 місяців тому +34

      What if we hired a driver with no eyeballs?

  • @teeks8713
    @teeks8713 5 місяців тому +10690

    “Oops, we’ve accidentally built a particle accelerator” might be the most XKCD sentence ever

    • @Dervalanana
      @Dervalanana 5 місяців тому +252

      As soon as we went from centrifuge to tube, I knew this would be the inevitable result

    • @davidegaruti2582
      @davidegaruti2582 5 місяців тому +71

      Aww not again !

    • @DestructivelyPhased
      @DestructivelyPhased 5 місяців тому +332

      Nah, the most xkcd sentence is “you wouldn’t really die of anything in the traditional sense, you’d simply cease being biology and become physics.”

    • @aogasd
      @aogasd 5 місяців тому +37

      ​@@DestructivelyPhasedthat one's a classic 😂

    • @EmmaHopman
      @EmmaHopman 5 місяців тому +31

      ​@@DestructivelyPhased Oh no Mr Stark I don't feel so physics

  • @HeroDarkStorn
    @HeroDarkStorn 3 місяці тому +688

    "Let's say the human has to survive" is my favorite clause of what-if questions.

    • @azraelle6232
      @azraelle6232 Місяць тому +26

      I love how quickly it was vetoed to make things more interesting.

  • @wigmanmania259
    @wigmanmania259 5 місяців тому +1149

    Turns out, even if Nascar had no rules, the universe still would have

  • @BluishGreenPro
    @BluishGreenPro 5 місяців тому +13518

    When you cross the line from “driving a Nascar track quickly” to “Oops, we built a particle accelerator”, you know SCIENCE was involved.

    • @bloomsux69
      @bloomsux69 5 місяців тому +101

      I laughed at that one

    • @irgendwieanders2121
      @irgendwieanders2121 5 місяців тому +42

      At least technology...

    • @moumdoh
      @moumdoh 5 місяців тому +65

      specifically all-caps... *inhales... SCIENCE*

    • @roryschussler
      @roryschussler 5 місяців тому +61

      As carcinization turns organisms into crabs, a similar process turns any "What if?" style question involving physics into a discussion of building a particle accelerator.

    • @louistech112
      @louistech112 5 місяців тому +2

      lol nice one

  • @srjskam
    @srjskam 5 місяців тому +5468

    Between the requirements of "driver alive" and "no driver", there should be "driver, but not necessarily alive". How fast could we slush around a person's worth of soup-like homogenate?

    • @jkid1134
      @jkid1134 5 місяців тому +885

      Ah, the self-driving racecar hearse variant.

    • @tehguitarque
      @tehguitarque 5 місяців тому

      This was Elon's original plan, but then he bought twitter. Similar if slower result.@@jkid1134

    • @trbz_8745
      @trbz_8745 5 місяців тому +542

      Or alternatively, "driver, but not necessarily alive" as in an AI-piloted vehicle. The car can only go as fast as the sensors and computers can process what's happening and make decisions.

    • @alex.g7317
      @alex.g7317 5 місяців тому +22

      Gaygenate

    • @tomfoolery4490
      @tomfoolery4490 5 місяців тому +147

      @@trbz_8745 Well, at that point you might still be limited by the acceleration tolerance of the electronics. I believe most computer motherboards can survive 100 gees for short periods, but I'm not sure about long timeframes. Artillery fuzes and shell guidance computers can also survive peak loads of thousands of gees, but again I'm not sure about sustained loads. I would assume 100 gees sustained would probably be a reasonable upper limit for a purpose-built unit with enough processing power for a self-driving race car. The tires and engine would probably give out long before reaching that, though.

  • @Maker_Star_Hero
    @Maker_Star_Hero 5 місяців тому +73

    The "conCERNing" pun deserves an award

  • @shuhanzheng1476
    @shuhanzheng1476 5 місяців тому +225

    Here’s an idea: since all tracks are topologically circles, you can build a car that has the driver’s seat mounted on a retractable arm that can extend to some ludicrous length. The arm is on a pivot that allows it to point towards any direction. Now, during a race, just make sure that the human driver stays at an arbitrary point near the track, and have the arm swing in a certain way, such that the human stays relatively still as the car completes the race.

    • @chinook700
      @chinook700 5 місяців тому +37

      The challenge is not move a car around a track, rather "get a human being around a track" not sure if yours fulfills that requirement.

    • @JurekOK
      @JurekOK 5 місяців тому +8

      cheater ;-)

    • @Adarisa
      @Adarisa 5 місяців тому +11

      It is not true that all racetracks are toplogically circles - Suzuka in Japan, for example, is a figure-8. But I think the solution works anyway.

    • @MikeyAntonakakis
      @MikeyAntonakakis 5 місяців тому +10

      @@Adarisayou’d have trouble getting the arm under the bridge at Suzuka I think

    • @kiwitrainguy
      @kiwitrainguy 5 місяців тому +2

      Oh, so it has a bridge/tunnel for the intersection, not both roads on the same level?🤔😅 Both roads on the same level would make the race much more interesting: "See you at the crossroads" (splat)😮.@@MikeyAntonakakis

  • @567secret
    @567secret 5 місяців тому +1828

    Due to how the question is phrased, I'm pretty sure keeping the human and car stationary and moving the track relative to them at high acceleration would work.

    • @roryschussler
      @roryschussler 5 місяців тому +260

      Awesome idea! But then the structural integrity of the track would probably be a limitation, assuming you can engineer the massive machine to lift and spin a NASCAR track.
      If you can replace the asphalt with some kind of carbon nanotube material, is it still the same track? What if you reinforce it with an outer layer of super strong material?

    • @eqiniox
      @eqiniox 5 місяців тому

      I like the idea of a NASCAR track frisbee, but chatGPT says it can't exist :(@@roryschussler

    • @DirtyMardi
      @DirtyMardi 5 місяців тому +79

      Or, speed up time relative to anyone else on the track.

    • @canadiannomad2330
      @canadiannomad2330 5 місяців тому +199

      @@DirtyMardi "Q:It's simple, change the gravitational constant of the universe."

    • @enterchannelname8981
      @enterchannelname8981 5 місяців тому +45

      @@roryschussler And what if you replace a section of the track with carbon nanotube? What if over time you gradually replace the track with the nanotube? Is it still the Track of Daytona?

  • @tannerbass7146
    @tannerbass7146 5 місяців тому +2807

    One of the best NASCAR cheats was Smokey Yunick realizing that there was a limit on the size of the gas tank, but not the size of the fuel line.
    Dude made an 11' x 2" fuel line that held an extra 2 gallons 😂
    Serious legend right there. It's fair to say the entire rule book was written based on his stunts

    • @tncorgi92
      @tncorgi92 5 місяців тому +147

      That's magnificent

    • @gamemeister27
      @gamemeister27 5 місяців тому +630

      The story goes that the inspectors found a different issue with his car, and tired of his antics, remove the fuel tank so he'd have to have it towed back to the garage. He then hops in the car, starts it right up, and drives off while yelling about there's one more issue they didn't catch.

    • @GewelReal
      @GewelReal 5 місяців тому +72

      ​@@gamemeister27how do you remove a fuel tank with fuel in it??

    • @RaquelFoster
      @RaquelFoster 5 місяців тому +153

      And Robert Duvall said that in Days of Thunder! But it's a pretty boring way to cheat! The Chaparral 2J had better downforce than anything in 1970 because it had an extra snowmobile engine powering two fans which sucked it down to the ground. I had to look that up when I saw how weird the car looked in Gran Turismo LOL

    • @gamemeister27
      @gamemeister27 5 місяців тому +24

      @@GewelReal you're gonna have to ask someone who knows way more about mechanic stuff

  • @ThatCookieDoughBoy
    @ThatCookieDoughBoy 5 місяців тому +30

    Man i hate when i accidentally create a particle accelerator

  • @tarasaurus98
    @tarasaurus98 5 місяців тому +636

    Fun fact: in 2001 Indycar actually found the limit of human tolerance for G force. The cars were going around the track in Texas so fast the drivers were beginning to lose consciousness and the race had to be cancelled.

    • @judo_ashtray
      @judo_ashtray 5 місяців тому +87

      IIRC the drivers were hitting 6 Gs in the turns

    • @VekhGaming
      @VekhGaming 5 місяців тому +118

      Looked it up, apparently the pole in qualifying was averaged at 233mph/375kmh on a 1.5 mile/2.4 km course.
      Yea that sounds like it would lead to some new and interesting doctor's visits.
      Also minor correction, that was CART, not Indycar.

    • @jmur3040
      @jmur3040 4 місяці тому +78

      CART not Indy (Mandatory "Tony George ruined american open wheel racing") Built to the rules, Indy cars weren't as fast.
      People started to notice drivers walking strangely and having other obvious neurological symptoms after qualifying laps. Then after some research they realized they were hitting 5+ Gs in the turns every lap and that it was very likely someone - or multiple someones - would blackout during the race. Only race that CART ever cancelled for driver safety.

    • @acarrillo8277
      @acarrillo8277 3 місяці тому

      Was this the same event that cause driver's retinas to separate? or was it corneas

    • @UNHchabo
      @UNHchabo 3 місяці тому +13

      @@VekhGaming The modern Indycar series considers CART, ChampCar, and the Indy Racing League to be predecessors. In 1999 Juan Pablo Montoya won the CART championship and Greg Ray won the IRL championship, and today they're both considered Indycar champions.

  • @juliegolick
    @juliegolick 5 місяців тому +2090

    I feel like "Oops, we accidentally made a particle accelerator" is going to become a running joke of this channel.

    • @leoaskham6564
      @leoaskham6564 5 місяців тому +37

      I really hope so

    • @mrptr9013
      @mrptr9013 5 місяців тому +83

      So far these are all from the books, so no, the running gag is ending life on earth or worse.

    • @juliegolick
      @juliegolick 5 місяців тому +20

      @@mrptr9013 Why not both!

    • @MeTheOneth
      @MeTheOneth 5 місяців тому +35

      It's like the way that all efforts to perfect transportation end up reinventing the passenger train.

    • @Balsiefen
      @Balsiefen 5 місяців тому +20

      That or "oops we accidently made a black hole" or "oops, we accidently made a particle accelerator followed by a black hole"

  • @thefrub
    @thefrub 5 місяців тому +783

    "Oops! We've accidentally built a particle accelerator"
    You need to stop doing that Randall

    • @johncho3467
      @johncho3467 5 місяців тому +7

      Channeling black hat.

    • @solalabell9674
      @solalabell9674 5 місяців тому +12

      “Caaaarrrrlllllll!!!!”

    • @mckseal
      @mckseal 5 місяців тому +30

      "What are you doing up honey? It's 1am"
      "Oh just finishing putting together the barbeque"
      "What's this part for?"
      "Oh that's the capacitor for the electromagnet, it'll accelerate the- god damnit"

  • @nicholaslogan6840
    @nicholaslogan6840 5 місяців тому +38

    I binge-read xkcd over a decade ago, I always thought it stood out as one of the very best webcomics. I'm so surprised to have my perception of the author suddenly expanded with the addition of his voice.

    • @xxpersonxx
      @xxpersonxx 5 місяців тому +7

      I feel like his voice sounds exactly like I expected haha

  • @murasaki848
    @murasaki848 5 місяців тому +74

    When I read the question itself it reminded me of Car Wars, the tabletop game. For a racing scenario like this, you usually had to limit cars to having no track-damaging or disrupting weapons, which meant no mines, caltrops, spike plates, non-flaming oil slicks, explosive rockets, etc. Just slug throwers, smoke or paint sprayers, lasers, etc. The question became what's the lightest armored car that could survive to reach the finish first.

    • @jothki
      @jothki 5 місяців тому +7

      Yeah, the lack of restrictions on preventing the competition from moving quickly is a significant oversight that the video fails to address.
      That sort of thing could end up being a serious issue when training AIs on how to perform tasks. The rules that humans claim they are following are always a small subset of the ones that they actually are following.

  • @PumpkinsAmongUs
    @PumpkinsAmongUs 5 місяців тому +1657

    Small, possibly pedantic issue: at 3:31 you say that diamond is one of the TOUGHEST materials, when in fact it's toughness (ability to deform plastically without breaking) is quite poor. Its HARDNESS, however, is spectacular. Other than that, great video, love your work!

    • @agonizin
      @agonizin 5 місяців тому +43

      True! Toughness is the area under the stress strain curve.

    • @adrianthoroughgood1191
      @adrianthoroughgood1191 5 місяців тому +112

      Yes! Words have specific meanings in a science/engineering context.

    • @DavidCowie2022
      @DavidCowie2022 5 місяців тому +364

      This is a safe space for pedantry.

    • @yitzakIr
      @yitzakIr 5 місяців тому +37

      That's one point for PumpkinsAmongUs

    • @mloxard
      @mloxard 5 місяців тому +145

      I'm sorry but you didn't say "Um, actually" so I can't give it to you

  • @TheaRetical
    @TheaRetical 5 місяців тому +629

    Fun fact! Formula 1 cars are limited by rules to keep them within what a human being can withstand because drivers started passing out on corners! Instead of incorporating g suits and such, they made rules that keep the cars from breaking their fragile human occupants!

    • @DavidCowie2022
      @DavidCowie2022 5 місяців тому +92

      That's a funny way of spelling "squishy meatbag."

    • @davidaugustofc2574
      @davidaugustofc2574 5 місяців тому +16

      In other words, their balls were too heavy to go this fast

    • @jnhkx
      @jnhkx 5 місяців тому +53

      g-suit might not be the answer because it's not the same as fighter jet that pull you 9-10G downward. F1 are pulling 5-6G sideway.
      I think g-suit is just squeeze your legs and let less blood flow down when it got pulled.
      All the sideway protections are mostly there now.
      And the main thing is, they don't want to make it faster than this, it's very dangerous already at this speed. It probably capped at 7G,370 km/hr forever.
      Still, both are amazing enough that somehow, we as human can train to endure it hundreds of times per flight/race.

    • @bewilderbeestie
      @bewilderbeestie 5 місяців тому +44

      I think they should drive them remotely, and eliminate all those annoying safety rules. It'd make for far more interesting races. You might want to avoid being in the audience, however, due to the increased risk of taking a F1 car to the face.

    • @Iceman259
      @Iceman259 5 місяців тому +27

      CART (now IndyCar) actually had to cancel a race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2001 because of this

  • @zappababe8577
    @zappababe8577 4 місяці тому +22

    2:29 I love the casual mention here - "It would also mean breaking the sound barrier on the back stretch" like it's NBD 🤷‍♀️

  • @irrelevant_noob
    @irrelevant_noob 5 місяців тому +12

    3:40 "Diamonds: actually flammable"! 🔥

  • @willschannel_
    @willschannel_ 5 місяців тому +254

    whoever had the idea for this youtube channel is a genius. makes me wanna buy the books more and more. love you randall!

    • @punkdigerati
      @punkdigerati 5 місяців тому +4

      Given how Randall follows the vocal conventions as the rest of Neptune studios productions, whether or not he pitched it, they're definitely the driving force behind it.

    • @Li-Nuss
      @Li-Nuss 5 місяців тому +17

      @@punkdigerati UA-cam videos are just a medium for the delivery of content. It's the content that matters. And the content is made by Randall Munroe.

    • @punkdigerati
      @punkdigerati 5 місяців тому +3

      @@Li-Nuss you can read the same video description as I did to see the people and corporation behind this.

    • @adityakhanna113
      @adityakhanna113 5 місяців тому +14

      What's crazy is that minutephysics was inspired by xkcd and they now get to work together

    • @willschannel_
      @willschannel_ 5 місяців тому

      that is awesome@@adityakhanna113

  • @PantherAssaultCannon
    @PantherAssaultCannon 5 місяців тому +179

    Hmmm, the speed with a healthy human might be lower, rotating them to keep the G-forces oriented towards their chests would introduce significant torque on the body as it turned at those speeds. These kinds of motions are particularly prone to concussions due to the brain failing to rotate as fast as the skull.

    • @johnbennett1465
      @johnbennett1465 5 місяців тому +15

      There is only a slight divergence between the force and the desired "down" direction. So that should not be a problem. Instead the rotation will add a centripetal force adding to the G-force.
      This reduces the max G-force the vehicle can experience to keep the driver safe.

    • @jmchristoph
      @jmchristoph 5 місяців тому +21

      I was about to say the same thing. One could probably calculate an acceleration profile which minimizes jerk or snap around the track, and simply take a couple integrals to find the time.
      But since that acceleration profile is periodic, I personally think a clever punch line would be to treat it as a wavefunction, put it through a Fourier transformation, and riff on the solution's units & dimensionality. Kinda like the previous "What If?" answer on fuel efficiency as a unit of area corresponding to the cross-section of a hypothetical ribbon of fuel along a highway.

    • @WyvernYT
      @WyvernYT 5 місяців тому +3

      I do appreciate that he went for the re-orientation sphere, though.

  • @NatetheNerdy
    @NatetheNerdy 2 місяці тому +6

    That "oops we built a particle accelerator" line is so relatable. You don't know how many times I've been doing thought experiments in my head for fun, only to find I've come back to something that already exists.

  • @solidjb
    @solidjb 5 місяців тому +32

    I remember getting into xkcd's what ifs about like 8-10 years ago. Loved the concept. After it kinda stopped I discovered lots of youtubers, that in my eyes took the formula, tweaked it and run with it, all great educators in their own right, guys like mustard and CGP grey, latter i think adapted the art style and tendency to go off a deep end. The scene bloom and grew, it became a staple, a phenomena, tracing roots to xkcd's what if. In a way it is to all others like AVGN was for comedy game reviews and letsplayers - a granddad. But as AVGN continued to work in the same medium, What if never really jumped to video format. Well, up until recently that is. And it worked out just about as well as I was imagining it (barring the mouse over quotes and footnote hyperlinks). That underlines how much the edutainment community borrowed from What If in my opinion. And it's great.
    Thanks, Randall!

    • @Frisbieinstein
      @Frisbieinstein 5 місяців тому

      As far as I'm concerned this might as well be in a foreign language.

    • @solidjb
      @solidjb 5 місяців тому

      @@Frisbieinstein sorry, English is not my native language, and I tend to ramble...

  • @hfar_in_the_sky
    @hfar_in_the_sky 5 місяців тому +108

    I remember in _The Expanse_ one of the hard limitations of small ship space combat/racing is how many Gs the human body can handle. They have special chemicals that people are injected with to help mitigate the negative effects of high g maneuvers but even then 15g is about the maximum before people start dying

    • @utkarshsingh343
      @utkarshsingh343 5 місяців тому +32

      "Here comes the juice!"

    • @tomsixsix
      @tomsixsix 5 місяців тому +23

      Also racing ships have gyroscopes in them to orient the pilots into the safest position.

    • @alveolate
      @alveolate 5 місяців тому +17

      ooh and they also had these really cool pilot seats that would swivel against the g-forces just like the ball thingy in the video

    • @The.Heart.Unceasing
      @The.Heart.Unceasing 5 місяців тому +9

      yeah, that's a huge problem for any hard-scifi witer that want human crews in space battles
      the following is a rant saying that drones would be great in space battles :
      (edit : disregard that, I fucked up my maths, you only need a 1-2 Gs to juke a laser at 5 light-seconds, the argument do not stand)
      (at least if you have the tech to make laser weapons effective at those ranges, but if you have torch-drives, I assume that you have at least hard-UV lasers)
      (unmmaned crafts still make sense in space because they are much more resilient to thing that would kill us, but g-forces are not one of them)
      (at least not in space battles)
      (edit edit : I also fucked up the earth-moon distance, it's 1 light-second, not 8)
      Given the fact that you can't dodge light-speed weapons (i.e. lasers, maser, xraser, etc) (and, realistically, close to light-speed, like particle beams and macrons accelerators) because you literally cannot see them coming, you have to randomly juke so that the enemy cannot know where you are due to light-lag, which mean you have to move fast enough that your ship isn't in the same place at all in a whatever your light-time distance is.
      So if you are engaging an enemy at 5 light-second, which is an enormous distance (for reference, the moon is at roughly 1 light-seconds from Earth), you have 5 second to move before they return fire with perfect accuracy.
      Having battle like that would be hell on any human crew, so the solution would be to have battle at 20-30 light-seconds or, much more practical, use unmanned ships !
      You could even use highly mobile drones swarms with very fast, very small ships bouncing and refocusing a laser generated by a bigger ship much further away to engage enemies at maybe half to a third of a light-second ! (yeah, "close-quarter" has a different meaning is space)
      Or you could go the other way and say "fuck light-speed weapons" and use missiles and coil-guns instead. They have the same problems but at much, much closer range.
      But that's boring.

    • @thedman9052
      @thedman9052 5 місяців тому

      I love The Expanse, but I'm skeptical that drugs or chemicals could increase a human's g tolerance without killing them. G forces kill because they cause tissue to physically crush itself, so what could you inject that would counteract that? Something like embalming fluid??

  • @alimanski7941
    @alimanski7941 5 місяців тому +48

    For anyone interested in actual no-rules racing, there's hill climbs, which while not strictly speaking wheel-to-wheel racing (it's a time trial), require some ridiculous aero devices to navigate twisty mountain roads at silly speeds.

    • @aspecreviews
      @aspecreviews 5 місяців тому

      Also time attack. Google "KERS Kels" and that's not even close to the craziest one...

    • @thejman3489
      @thejman3489 5 місяців тому +4

      Super Modifieds. They race short ovals. I don't know if they have rules today but the whole series was built on an anything goes basis. Just had to have 4 tires and an engine that powers it.

    • @alimanski7941
      @alimanski7941 5 місяців тому +2

      @@thejman3489 those are the ones with the gigantic rear wings, right?

    • @thejman3489
      @thejman3489 5 місяців тому +4

      @alimanski7941 Yes. The wings were originally on Sprint Cars and Sprint Cars still use it. The super modifieds took the wing a step further and made it lift up going down the straights, reducing drag, and goes down in the corners, increasing down force.

    • @basher20
      @basher20 5 місяців тому +3

      my first reaction for what a car that was reasonably expected to race an oval track without a rulebook or budget would end up being a hybrid of an unlimited hillclimber, a supermodified, and a Group-C sportscar, likely with a turbine engine for speedways and high-displacement piston for short-tracks.

  • @bluey-next777
    @bluey-next777 5 місяців тому +13

    3:47
    O O P S

    • @bluey-next777
      @bluey-next777 4 місяці тому +1

      4 likes in a month?
      That was fast...

    • @bluey-next777
      @bluey-next777 3 місяці тому +1

      Also
      This is conCENing

  • @hiimemily
    @hiimemily 26 днів тому +3

    Nice touch having Buddy Baker and Bill Elliott's actual Daytona cars on the podium at 2:15.

  • @oatfarmer6501
    @oatfarmer6501 5 місяців тому +40

    I am so happy Randall started a UA-cam channel. Thank you for your content!

  • @w0ttheh3ll
    @w0ttheh3ll 5 місяців тому +76

    If you allow for a circular track, orbiting a gravity well will get you moving pretty fast without any unhealthy acceleration. Tidal forces from the gravity well will set a lower limit to the track size.

    • @JurekOK
      @JurekOK 5 місяців тому +2

      The person in question would still have to contend with hard radiation from small particles that happen to be nearby, and from the gamma/x-ray radiation from the "spectator lights". So, yes, you could race "particles" this way, but for humans, the limit would be how much radiation do you agree to take to your balls.

    • @dielaughing73
      @dielaughing73 5 місяців тому +2

      Isn't an orbit by definition a constant acceleration towards the centre? Just because we don't feel significant g-forces in freefall around the earth, doesn't mean we wouldn't while orbiting on the scale of 1-2km circumference

    • @JurekOK
      @JurekOK 5 місяців тому +7

      @@dielaughing73 the point of the OP is to compensate for the human-squashing acceleration by entering an orbit of a small black hole. so, in principle, if you set things just right, you could be orbiting a tiny black hole and doing just 3G inwards and that would be faster than doing a zero-G orbit around the same gravity well. You would still have to contend with the radiation though.

    • @Wick9876
      @Wick9876 5 місяців тому +5

      @@dielaughing73 As long as every bit of your body is being accelerated at the same rate it might as well be standing still. It's when some parts of the body are accelerated more than others and they bang into each to balance things out that you turn into goo.

    • @dielaughing73
      @dielaughing73 5 місяців тому

      @@Wick9876 that's making my head hurt a bit but I can't find a way to refute it. I imagine you'd get a bit dizzy or disoriented still from spinning around so fast..

  • @ImSquiggs
    @ImSquiggs 5 місяців тому +6

    No freakin way we get an xkcd UA-cam channel!!
    THANK YOU FRIEND, I’ve missed binging your comics at work but our filters don’t allow it anymore, now you’re back where they can’t see you :)

  • @andrewstipp124
    @andrewstipp124 5 місяців тому +5

    So cool to actually hear Randall's voice along with these what-ifs! Congrats on arriving to a new platform buddy!

  • @lemonmane69
    @lemonmane69 5 місяців тому +14

    The thing is, in the last example, The driver (particle accelerator operator) actually stays alive and well!

    • @abraveastronaut
      @abraveastronaut 5 місяців тому +3

      Not really going around the track anymore, though, are they?

    • @lemonmane69
      @lemonmane69 5 місяців тому

      @@abraveastronaut No, but they’re still alive.

  • @xKingxTitus
    @xKingxTitus 5 місяців тому +18

    Discovering xkcd has a UA-cam channel is like Christmas coming early

  • @tim..indeed
    @tim..indeed 5 місяців тому +7

    These What-Ifs work so well in video format! Great idea.

  • @sagacious03
    @sagacious03 5 місяців тому

    So glad you're still uploading! Thanks so much! I've loved this series so long, & am super eager for more videos of it!

  • @longboweod
    @longboweod 5 місяців тому +6

    I love when these ideas trend to "Whoops, we accidentally built an x."
    Fastest NASCAR? Reduce the mass, magnetically levitate it! Oops, it's a particle accelerator.
    Cook a chicken by slapping? Reduce the size of the slaps, spread them out over time. What you're describing is an oven.

  • @aqimjulayhi8798
    @aqimjulayhi8798 5 місяців тому +22

    Soooo, the Large Hadron Collider is basically a miniature NASCAR track…
    Seriously love these videos. Good brain food.

    • @galoomba5559
      @galoomba5559 5 місяців тому +15

      Miniature? It's 27 km long

    • @Appletank8
      @Appletank8 5 місяців тому +13

      @@galoomba5559 On the other hand, the "cars" are very small.

    • @aqimjulayhi8798
      @aqimjulayhi8798 5 місяців тому +3

      @@galoomba5559 my bad. I mean the cars are miniature, the track is humongous.

  • @MobMentality12345
    @MobMentality12345 5 місяців тому

    I’m so happy this series is on UA-cam now. Thank you!

  • @panwitt4980
    @panwitt4980 5 місяців тому

    i love that these are being turned into videos. i read your first what if years ago and loved it

  • @kraai8653
    @kraai8653 5 місяців тому +4

    You could reanimate the dead driver right before the finish line just go fast enough to not have lasting damage from being dead but not too fast to make sure they don’t get damage from going to fast

  • @lorenzovaleraini
    @lorenzovaleraini 5 місяців тому +23

    I legitimately love this series! Own all of the books, favourite being what if and what if 2, thanks for making such a great series :)

    • @foximacentauri7891
      @foximacentauri7891 5 місяців тому +1

      What other books are there? I only knowing these 2

    • @bobcoombs7924
      @bobcoombs7924 5 місяців тому

      @@foximacentauri7891 Thing Explainer is great fun.

    • @lorenzovaleraini
      @lorenzovaleraini 5 місяців тому

      @@foximacentauri7891 there is how to and i think there is also a why if however it may have just been a parody inside the book

  • @mulasch6266
    @mulasch6266 5 місяців тому +1

    Dude I loved your books, so glad I found this channel :D

  • @michaelrice2156
    @michaelrice2156 5 місяців тому

    Thank you for making a UA-cam channel! I have been a fan of the xkcd site for years, and I was so happy to see a channel dedicated to your view of the universe.

  • @Jamato-sUn
    @Jamato-sUn 5 місяців тому +3

    I absolutely love your videos!!! Keep up the good work!

  • @ForumArcade
    @ForumArcade 5 місяців тому +11

    I'm interested though if the sport were to evolve to have drivers remotely operating their vehicles. It becomes much more like a video game, but with the limitations of real life physics. What are the highest speeds that could be achieved before the reaction time of the driver is insufficient to operate the vehicle on these tracks?

    • @Kumquat_Lord
      @Kumquat_Lord 5 місяців тому +1

      Drone car racing would be an amazing sport

    • @emm6064
      @emm6064 5 місяців тому +6

      such a sport would be required to make power-ups _mandatory_. Nascar with banana peels and turtle shells is something I might actually watch!

    • @toolbaggers
      @toolbaggers 5 місяців тому +3

      They already race RC cars. Look at multirotor FPV racing, 3D heli aerobatics and pan car racing to get an idea.
      If you look at top level video gaming, the reaction times needed are superhuman.

    • @shortcat
      @shortcat 5 місяців тому

      or even better - allow ai. at first it will be the same driving aids used in road cars but over time better ai will be developed that can completely replace the human driver.

  • @mono-no-aware.Lem.
    @mono-no-aware.Lem. 5 місяців тому +1

    there's a TON of fascinating science-based stuff in auto racing that frankly doesn't get covered enough on UA-cam. As a life long NASCAR fan, I couldn't be happier seeing this video pop up!

  • @dj_them
    @dj_them 5 місяців тому

    Oh my god I'm so glad you've started uploading these. I lost my copy of the first book and this has made my day! Instant subscribe, looking forward to more :)

  • @Asssosasoterora
    @Asssosasoterora 5 місяців тому +13

    I guess the final step would be to make a black hole with event horizon just smaller than the track lenght. That way you could make light orbit in a straight line around the black hole.

    • @rtg_onefourtwoeightfiveseven
      @rtg_onefourtwoeightfiveseven 5 місяців тому +4

      You'd want the event horizon to be 2/3 the track radius. That way the track lines up with the photon sphere, the radius at which light orbits in a circle. Any lower than that and the light would plunge into the black hole.

  • @alexrvolt662
    @alexrvolt662 5 місяців тому +3

    3:00 this limit holds only if the strap has the same cross section all along. If the cross section is allowed to vary, you can go way faster.

  • @JohnHudert1
    @JohnHudert1 5 місяців тому

    Soooooo well done!!!
    Every time I had a thought to improve the process, the narrator was already there! Great job!

  • @NickelC
    @NickelC 5 місяців тому

    I'm sorry, where did you get such TOP TIER sound effects? I listened to this video 23 TIMES just for the sound effects, and I was brought to TEARS by them! Beautiful work!

  • @Andrew_Bradshaw
    @Andrew_Bradshaw 5 місяців тому +4

    Particle accelerator doesn't leave much room for advertisements thats for sure!

  • @196cupcake
    @196cupcake 5 місяців тому +16

    Did you consider the possibility of a frozen embryo? It's a stretch of the definition of human and alive, but I think it would be able to withstand more gs.

    • @TheAgamidaex
      @TheAgamidaex 5 місяців тому +4

      ahah, now that's thinking with portals
      hell, let's go a step further. Change the laws to recognize a fertilized egg as a human. Think how much we could improve the record!

    • @greentoby26
      @greentoby26 5 місяців тому +1

      "It's a stretch of the definition of human and alive"
      Religious lunatics disagree

  • @AliceKMay
    @AliceKMay 5 місяців тому

    I love your books. It's fun and informative. Nice to see you on UA-cam.

  • @Latchback
    @Latchback 5 місяців тому

    Just subscribed. Im SOO glad i found this xkcd youtube channel. Seem pretty new or not many videos as of yet (unless im missing something). I REALLY Hope to see more what if videos AND potentially other new xkcd video series(!!!) in the future as im sure they would be popular! WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE.

  • @worcestershirey
    @worcestershirey 5 місяців тому +5

    The NASCAR to particle accelerator pipeline is real

  • @DissociatedWomenIncorporated
    @DissociatedWomenIncorporated 5 місяців тому +3

    “Eyeballs -fall out- distort” gave me a hearty chuckle, thanks Randall and Merry Christmas
    ❤️💚❤️💚❤️

  • @mqb3gofjzkko7nzx38
    @mqb3gofjzkko7nzx38 5 місяців тому +2

    Here's my plan: Build a really tall vehicle where the driver sits at the top. Just before start of the race, it starts to tip over to the left. Once the driver is over the exact center of the track, the car can drive around as fast as it wants. The driver stays in place and only experiences rotation.

    • @timrtz
      @timrtz 5 місяців тому +1

      That's what I was thinking!

  • @MrWooaa
    @MrWooaa 4 місяці тому

    I am so happy to hear Randall's voice after loving his work for so many years.

  • @shill2920
    @shill2920 5 місяців тому +3

    These illustrations are neat! He should start a webcomic!

    • @MuhammadAmmar-oj1js
      @MuhammadAmmar-oj1js 5 місяців тому

      Yeah. I think he could write a book or two as well.
      Hey I have a brilliant idea! He should name it "What if" just like his youtube channel!

  • @dylanhill9202
    @dylanhill9202 5 місяців тому +3

    We've basically hit that limit of human capabilities in other racing categories - the Firestone Firehawk 600 in 2001 had to be cancelled due to concerns over g-force induced loss of consciousness. The average speed of the pole lap was 233.344 miles per hour, and that's on a 1.5 mile tri-oval, not the 2.5 mile configuration for Daytona, so your corners have a tighter radius

  • @emrose3308
    @emrose3308 5 місяців тому

    This is amazing, I been reading XKCD for years, so happy to see it on UA-cam!!

  • @avhuf
    @avhuf 5 місяців тому

    This channel is an absolute winner. I'm surprised it hasn't been established earlier.

  • @Warkip
    @Warkip 5 місяців тому +3

    The human 3-6g limit is for g forces acting downwards. Thats what a pilot experiences while turning. This is the limit due to your blood being pulled down to your feet and leaving your brain without oxygen. But when making sure the g forces always act to your back, you could very likely sustain quite a bit more than that, and thus move at a higher speed

  • @hockeybuster17
    @hockeybuster17 5 місяців тому

    My favorite video in your series. Nice work 👍

  • @YTEdy
    @YTEdy 5 місяців тому

    Love xkcd. Didn't know about the youtube channel. Happy it showed up in my feed.

  • @AdamvanAlderwerelt
    @AdamvanAlderwerelt 5 місяців тому

    Great content. Thank you. Merry Christmas.

  • @kedarjani4396
    @kedarjani4396 5 місяців тому

    So glad I'm on this channel early. This one's going to blow up real soon

  • @McDonaldsCalifornia
    @McDonaldsCalifornia 2 місяці тому +1

    The assignment turned from "living driver" to "liquid driver"

  • @booshieB01
    @booshieB01 3 місяці тому

    Yoooo I remember reading your book when I was a kid, man wow I didn't know you had a yt channel that makes alot of sense

  • @lampshade6967
    @lampshade6967 5 місяців тому

    Omg I had your what if book as a kid
    Awesome to find your channel

  • @Zorgdub
    @Zorgdub 5 місяців тому

    I didn't know XKCD was on youtube. This is great!

  • @TheJohtunnBandit
    @TheJohtunnBandit 5 місяців тому

    Yay! I'm so glad this channel exists!

  • @acerniss
    @acerniss 5 місяців тому

    YOU HAVE A UA-cam CHANNEL?? I’ve been obsessed with the books.. how did I not know this??

  • @andressigalat602
    @andressigalat602 5 місяців тому

    I did already read this in the website and the book, but watching it in video form gives it a new life. Goob job!👍

  • @Bismuth9
    @Bismuth9 5 місяців тому +1

    This is an unusually good way to put the speed of light in perspective!

  • @koyzumie
    @koyzumie 5 місяців тому

    This was an awesome concept and great video!

  • @ThatHBDude
    @ThatHBDude 5 місяців тому

    Ive been a big fan of the book series, and when I discovered that there is a youtube channel about What If, I was hooked!

  • @syndicate_555
    @syndicate_555 5 місяців тому +1

    I'm so glad Randall has finally made it to UA-cam

  • @newklear2k
    @newklear2k 5 місяців тому +1

    I'm so ecstatic you're on UA-cam now, Randall. This platform needs people like you to steward the unshittification of the platform.

  • @eltigrenumerouno
    @eltigrenumerouno 5 місяців тому

    please make make more of these vids :-) love them so much

  • @bloop_official
    @bloop_official 5 місяців тому +1

    I genuinely feel that the "Oops we've accidentaly built a particle accelerator will stick to the channel as a lifelong meme and as a slogan. It is the most Randall Munroe sentence ever.

  • @lasagnahog7695
    @lasagnahog7695 5 місяців тому +2

    This channel rocks so hard. It reminds me of Minute Physics but with it's own personality. (I love both channels.)

    • @romeocharliegolf
      @romeocharliegolf 5 місяців тому

      MinutePhysics used to collab with xkcd a couple of times. Also, if you checked the credits/the about page on the channel... These videos are also produced by the MinutePhysics guys ;)

  • @hyperthreaded
    @hyperthreaded 5 місяців тому

    I'm so glad I discovered this channel 🎉

  • @dcbaars
    @dcbaars 5 місяців тому

    You sound just like my old physics teacher…always had a compelling example and explaining all possible variants. Always interesting lessons

  • @DoFliesCallUsWalks
    @DoFliesCallUsWalks Місяць тому +1

    One of the best scientific and humorous youtubers out there.

  • @jamesconroyfinn
    @jamesconroyfinn 5 місяців тому

    Love this video! And It’s the handwriting is inspiring. Kudos to the artists.
    An additional step comes to mind: surround your vehicle with enough mass to distort spacetime. Oops, we’ve built an Alcubierre drive.

  • @fingerstyleguitas9046
    @fingerstyleguitas9046 5 місяців тому

    This reminded me of a cartoon from early 2000's. It was about nascar racing where they did all sorts of crazy things with the cars and tracks, like rocket engines etc.

  • @Noodle-oodle
    @Noodle-oodle 4 дні тому

    “Oops, we accidentally built a particle accelerator.” Best quote in this channel

  • @nerdest
    @nerdest 5 місяців тому

    I love this and your books

  • @bettergs2790
    @bettergs2790 5 місяців тому

    Man those videos are amazing

  • @BaronPraxis8492
    @BaronPraxis8492 5 місяців тому +1

    I greatly enjoy this Mythbusters style of "let's answer the question, then make everything about it more and more extreme until something explodes"

  • @bijeshshrestha2450
    @bijeshshrestha2450 5 місяців тому +1

    That centrifuge thing makes me think, what if you create a very long vehicle with the wheels on one end and the driver suspended in the liquid in the other end such that the vehicles turning effect has lesser effect on the driver

  • @macsnafu
    @macsnafu 3 місяці тому +1

    "Let's say the racer has to survive." I'm rather glad that was included as part of the criteria!
    And then the video proceeds to ignore that requirement.

  • @AKracecars
    @AKracecars 5 місяців тому

    Man I can tell this channel is gonna slap hard

  • @quilan1
    @quilan1 5 місяців тому

    Oh dang, I totally missed that Henry Reich was the writer & director for this! That's fantastic, love his work!

  • @ashinwill
    @ashinwill 5 місяців тому +1

    Ah XKCD, reminding us how unintentionally terrifying everything is under the right circumstances.

  • @CST1992
    @CST1992 5 місяців тому

    What-If's coming to UA-cam. Nice.
    Hey Randall, do a video on the "mole of moles" one or the light-speed diamond one!

  • @SplotchTheCatThing
    @SplotchTheCatThing 15 днів тому

    I love the idea that a racetrack and a particle accelerator are two points along the same spectrum
    'cause it's never something I'd think of but when I think about it it makes perfect sense