Re: xkcd: Anchor Bolts

On 4/20/2025 11:17 AM, Paul S Person wrote:

On Sat, 19 Apr 2025 15:22:08 -0500, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
 

xkcd: Anchor Bolts
    https://xkcd.com/3078/
>
I want to see the drill.  The largest earthen drill in the world to date
is less than a couple of hundred feet in diameter.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_(tunnel_boring_machine)

 Let's see if a link that works can be provided:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_(tunnel_boring_machine)>
well, that was easy.
 This was quite a saga, starting with the efforts of WDOT (the
State-level DOT, as Aurora/Hwy 99 is a State Highway) to convince
voters to replace the viaduct with a tunnel. This enhanced the view,
and so the value, of a group of people living downtown at the expense
of a beloved landmark. Notable was the "coincidental" release of an
animation showing what would happen to the viaduct in a major
earthquake. What would happen to the tunnel, underground and next to
Elliot Bay (and so a whole lot of water) was somehow not explored.
 

That bolt shaft has got to be at least a mile in diameter.  Maybe a
hundred miles in diameter, the scale is difficult to ascertain.
>
Explained at:
    https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3078:_Anchor_Bolts

 Really big lasers?

Maybe some of the lasers that we use to shoot ICBMs coming in from space as documented in the awesome "Real Genius" movie with Val Kilmer.  Gonna need a lot of those really expensive one shot cartridges though.
Lynn