The Cellar - November 20, 2008: Whole Lotta Hole

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- - November 20, 2008: Whole Lotta Hole (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=18760)

November 20, 2008: Whole Lotta Hole

Just like getting a BJ from grandma... don't look down.

Quote:

Hold on to your specs while peering down here. You'd have a long climb to the bottom if they fell off.
This rocky chasm in China is one of the world's deepest underground shafts. It stretches down for an astonishing 3,100ft, or 1,026 metres.
An international team of cave explorers who discovered the cave, near the village of Tian Xing, are seen descending into the abyss.

http://cellar.org/2008/chinahole1.jpg

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The picture was taken by photographer Robert Shone, 28, of Manchester, who spent two months with the climbers documenting-their explorations. Camping underground for four to five days at a time, the team were able to explore the extensive network of caves and tunnels.Though unimaginably deep, the Chinese caves are actually dwarfed by others across the globe.
The world's deepest cave is Krubera in Georgia, which is 6,822ft deep (2,080 metres), followed by Lamprechtsofen in Austria (5,354ft or 1,631 metres) and Gouffre Mirolda in France (5,335ft or 1,626 metres).

http://cellar.org/2008/chinahole2.jpg

Link

Amazing. I'm gonna start a second career as a cave explorer right away.
Is this the cave where the Chinese Government dumps all the executed people? It shouldn't be that deep anymore...

Should we tell Sheldon there is a giant vertical shaft in the IotD?

I just did some calculations, and if I got them right, if you tossed a stone into that shaft it would take 14.5 seconds to hit the bottom. There would be another three seconds before the sound reached you back at the top.
When it hit it would have been doing 510 kph (317mph) less wind resistance.

I thought terminal velocity was around 200mph?

Obviously the work of a big Horta with locomotion difficulties.

It's really cool how smooth/straight that hole is. I'm no geologist. There's probably some simple explanation for how it was formed, but I can't imagine what that would be.

I just want to throw a hot dog down there. Zen can calculate it for me. And Sheldon could laff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZenGum (Post 506021)

Should we tell Sheldon there is a giant vertical shaft in the IotD?...

I've been aware of you for some time. ;-)

spelunking will NOT appear in my obituary

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cloud (Post 506177)

spelunking will NOT appear in my obituary

But "Horrendous personal pleasuring device accident' will. :D

oh, one can only hope!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZenGum (Post 506021)

I got slightly different numbers, but I didn't account for bouncing off the walls on the way down.

What about terminal velocity? I guess you couldn't figure it unless you knew the exact size & mass of the stone and figured out the air resistance.

All you really need is the mass, frontal area and drag coefficient.