Title text:
Detectives say the key to tracking down the source of the kites was a large wall map covered in thumbtacks and string. ‘It’s the first time that method has ever actually worked,’ said a spokesperson.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3121/
As a kid I once flew a kite with almost 1,500 feet of kite string. A quarter mile or so. It sagged quite a lot but we estimated it was about 350-400ft up or so in a field. Then a crop duster showed up.
I put the string between my legs while a fiend held the spool and ran as fast as I could to bring down the kite.
We were also about 1 mile past the end of a air force runway.
Doing some quick math here:
Circumference of the Earth is about 24k mi = 44M yds.
The cheapest fishing line I could find online (from Amazon) (I didn’t search very hard though) was $10 for 440 yds of line. To circle the Earth, you’d need 44M / 440 = 100k spools = $1M for the fishing line.
Let’s assume every spool needs about 1 kite. That’s 100k kites. You can find kites online for like $5 each, but the cheapest way to get a kite is probably to bulk order wooden sticks and plastic film and make them yourself. Let’s do the math on that.
Assume each kite requires a generous 5 ft^2 of film, and 10 ft of sticks. I found some bulk plastic film rolls online (from McMaster Carr) for about $0.02 per ft^2, and some wooden marshmellow sticks (on Amazon) for about $0.10 per foot. That makes $0.02*5 + $0.10*10 = $1.10 per kite. That totals $1.10 * 100k = $110k.
So using these estimates, this kite ring costs around $1.11M.
No clue if it would actually work though.
Edit: corrected a math error
This also assumes the time you spend making 100k kites is worth nothing to you. Say you can make 20 kites in an hour (1 every 3 minutes), and you work for 15 hours every day. It will take you 333 days to finish that on your own.
We just need a few hundred people working on them. 300 kites per person is much more doable. Even better, I’m sure we could find some place overseas where we could hire help to assemble them for relatively low cost
that’s just the $5 kites with more steps
So, a little less than a year. Working on building kites. For free. Yeah, I’m not going to do that.
Anyone want to make it? I’ll donate $20 to the cause
The line should snap long before that.
I dunno man, fishing line’s pretty strong stuff
Not hold onto enough kites to circle the Earth kind of strong. Fishing line strength is measured in lbs, and not a lot of them. Fish can break it after all.
You can get the line for less than $100k here, but I’m not sure about the strength… https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/500m-Nylon-Fishing-Line-for-Freshwater_1601256967845.html
This one would be $214k, advertises 36 kg of strength (.5mm diameter braided) https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/JOF-Japan-4-Brands-300M-500M_1601056379751.html?selectedCarrierCode=SEMI_MANAGED_STANDARD%40%40STANDARD
This one would be $3.5M, advertises 226 kg of strength (2 mm diameter braided) https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Ashconfish-Braided-Fishing-Line-16-Strands_62225575567.html
The jet steams are above the equator, so they would be smaller
Edit: above as in northern or southern latitudes
I assume you meant to say they’re not above the equator, which I didn’t actually know until now.
We can find the new length by simply multiplying the equator total by cos(latitude), since circumference is linear to radius.
For subtropical jet streams, latitude is around +/-30 degrees, so our adjusted price comes out to around $950k.
For polar jet streams, the latitude is around +/-60 degrees, bringing the price to $555k.
Extra note: The jet streams can reach speeds of >100mph, so I don’t think our poor little toothpick and plastic film kites will survive!
Yes, meant not on the equator, above as in northern (or southern)
I think OP means it’s above on a map, i.e. north, like how the Mediterranean is above Africa.
Edit: to head off any pedants: there are jet streams in the south too, but the point was that the length would be less than Earth’s circumference (plus xkcd comics seem to be set in north America).
deleted by creator
I yearn for the day this xkcd is relevant
Solid alt-text. Also in the news https://www.bkreader.com/lifestyle-culture/cyclists-getting-hurt-from-mysterious-string-on-marine-parkway-bridge-10999972
Lol the last line of the article
The last line:
Bicycling across the Marine Parkway Bridge is common, but is actually forbidden by the MTA, which asks riders to dismount and walk.
Looks like we found our first suspect lol
I swear, the US is a parody of itself
deleted by creator
That won’t work. The lifting force required to keep the string and kites aloft is proportional to their weight. The lifting force they can obtain from the wind is proportional to the horizontal force exerted. The first segment of kite string is going to be under stress sufficient to hold the entire chain aloft; it won’t hold.
Could spider silk be the solution to this?
Super lightweight and very strong. Plus it’s springy, so that can even out any sharp tugs on the line.
There really is an xkcd for everything.
Oopsie. 😂
