A friend and I have been having an ongoing debate for years. We were at a pub on a wharf, watching shipping container ships and cruise ships come into dock, and he posed the question. With no wind, no waves, perfect conditions, could he move the ship at all?
In: Planetary Science
water resistance isn’t like ground friction. The water would result in a slower speed than if you were pulling it in vacuum but it wouldn’t prevent the ship from moving until your pulling harder than a certain amount.
So technically you could get it to move and people *have* done this. I’ve seen groups of people pulling a cruise ship by hand as part of a bet.
The problem is that container ships are massive and we’re talking about a single person. Even under ideal circumstances pulling for an hour would get you something like a literal snail’s pace.
In reality though the slightest bit of wind or current would completely overwhelm anything you’re doing.
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