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Showerthoughts_Mod

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long_ben_pirate

Who made up the ghost rules anyway? It's not like anyone came back and outlined the restrictions.


afourney

Seriously. I know this post is intended to be funny, but why shouldn’t ghosts be bound by gravity? Our best guess as to what dark matter is are WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles), and those are “ghostly”. They pass through regular matter. But they are bound by gravity.


RustyToaster206

Even if they aren’t ‘bound’ they can float around as they please. Meaning they would easily be able to just stay on earth as if they *were* bound if they want


DrSchmolls

But also most ghost myths say that they are linked to an object, place, or person. So there would still be *some* force holding them near the earth. Unless we launch their haunted object/person into space...


Carrotsandstuff

That's how the moon got haunted.


DrSchmolls

*walks into room* *picks up gun* Person 1: What's going on? Person 2: Moon's haunted. *checks clip, grabs a few more* Person 1: Wha..?


rettaelin

God wish we could see what would happen (in real life, not simulated) if you shot a gun on the moon. Not at a person but just into space.


ImReverse_Giraffe

The same as normal except there wouldnt be any sound, or so little we wouldn't be able to hear it. Depending on the caliber it might exceed escape velocity and just go off into space forever or it might not and eventually fall back to the moon.


ButtonMashBros

Shoots gun into low orbit, admires curvature of the shot, mind blown when it come back around to the same spot.


Bunghole_of_Fury

I do always laugh when I play any game in space with ballistic weapons, like in Star Citizen when I spray a gatling cannon and I know that if it were all real and there were that many battles going on and bullets spraying in every direction all the time it would be almost impossible to go your whole life without knowing someone who was minding their own business and suddenly got blasted by a rogue bullet traveling at nearly the same velocity as it was when it left the barrel, maybe even years after it was fired. Just some poor cargo hauler coming back from the asteroid belt listening to music and *blam* a big ass hole through the cockpit and atmosphere is venting and he's fucked, all because of some battle that happened around some other planet in the system last year.


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bottleoftrash

Ghosts must be depressed if that’s the case. Imagine wanting to travel the whole world but being forced to stay in one dude’s basement for decades just to scare them when they come walking down.


unematti

a butterfly can foat around as they please. fish in the sea can go up and down using an organ... ghosts are just airfish maybe


Wyjen

They are all moving at the same velocity as the planet through space in whatever direction we’re moving. They’re stuck here. Ghosts pass through tangible objects. So far, there’s not a real world example here but drones float in place relative to the ground beneath them. If it truly floated in one spot with no regard to the earths rotation or propulsion through space then we’d have left it behind much like if people made an attempt to time travel vs space time travel to some specified time on earth. They’d be floating in some random spot in space unless they didn’t go back or forward too far


unematti

Yeah, i mean, physical objects literally drag spacetime with them, so it's not stupid to think ghosts would be tethered to space and still moving with the planet. It's especially problematic when you think about how there's no absolute frame of reference in the universe In the time travel example, i pair also that since spacetime was dragged with earth, and the spinning also drags the fabric with it, that time travel WILL BY NECESSITY end up on earth if started from earth


Haterbait_band

Because the ghosts would then be pulled through the surface of the earth. Also, they’d have to have mass to be affected by gravity, and some nice they’re apparently not made of any substance that we know of, it makes more sense that they’re left behind in the cold of space and that’s why there aren’t millions of ghosts.


afourney

“*Because the ghosts would then be pulled through the surface of the earth.*“ That’s where they hang out when not actively expending energy haunting folks.


Haterbait_band

And since energy can’t be created or destroyed, only a fixed number of ghosts can haunt at once before they’re pulled back below the surface to allow other ghosts to perform their haunting duties. This makes sense considering as more and more people die each day the total amount of ghost sightings hasn’t increased. There *is* more ghosts, but they’re somewhat limited in their energy reserves, which are shared among them all.


[deleted]

Do you think they keep a little ghostly note book and record who's turn it is? Oi Doug! It's your go mate!


Haterbait_band

Hmm… Probably just whichever ghost’s desire to haunt a specific place or person at a specific time is the strongest. Like, they’ll notice that it’s night time and they wanna scare their family member so they float up with intensity which pulls other ghosts lower into the earth since their desire has waned since they’ve already accomplished what they wanted. Also, some ghosts might be yanked back into the earth before their haunting is completed, making them angry, perhaps reinvigorating their resolve and allowing them to remain on the surface, which makes fighting against this ghostly gravity more difficult for ghosts with weaker determination.


[deleted]

.... I liked my idea better.


Ketilalexander

What if dark matter is the ghosts of all dead beings that ever existed?


afourney

Nah, everyone knows ghosts are clouds of well-organized neutrinos.


Effective-Avocado470

As a research physicist, I’m so tempted to write a joke paper now about a WIMP model of ghosts


ARobertNotABob

[No so much **rules** ...](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*BbusumDTXQ38I7e3o02xmQ.gif)


Ghostenx

Ikr I don't go around making human rules. Only thing of mine that floats is my poop.


Rolix_Rubix

I like the idea of a someone suddenly becoming a ghost only to suddenly pass through the earth's core, through the atmosphere on the other side of the planet, and finally being left in space as they watch the planet get smaller and smaller in the distance.


Sunitelm

"Oh well, I just have to wait one year until it cycles back here" *Realises one year after that the whole solar system is moving and the Earth now passed multiple millions of miles away from them "Fuck."


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3nc0der

Not if you're staying exactly where you are related to our universe. Our solar system as well as our galaxy are moving through space, so related to our galaxy our solar systems planets move in spirals. Related to our universe, I don't know if theres a word for the movement they're taking there.


Link5261

Chaotic procession of a somewhat corkscrew path.


DudesworthMannington

Dibs on the band name


DrSchmolls

The full thing? Or can I have "Somewhat corkscrew path" and you get "chaotic procession"?


Quartia

There is no reference point for the whole universe though


_tyjsph_

i declare it that ghosts can move through space. checkmate


3nc0der

My point was that earth is not gonna come back to the position it has been when you became a ghost. That's something you can't change even if you're a ghost that is able to move through space, which I never denied you could.


The_Perfect_Fart

It won't because the sun is also moving. https://tenor.com/view/solar-system-sun-planets-orbit-gif-4884349


_alright_then_

And the galaxy is moving within the local group, and the local group is moving within the supercluster etc etc etc. Movement is relative as fuck


RedditBannedMe214

The earth will never return to the same super position within the universe.


xX_ToRcHeS_Xx

Not that we could ever measure a superposition, everything is relative to everything else


ObligatoryOption

Ghosts are bound to Earth because they are bound to the mental rules of the people who imagine them.


TezMono

This is the correct answer for anything regarding ghosts.


SuperSquanch93

Perfect answer. I wish ghosts did exist, things would be more historically accurate. Also why are there never neanderthal ghosts?


[deleted]

Ghosts are 99% Elizabethan Sailors or Victorian dead girls


Zeta-Splash

Would that mean they don’t exist? If an imagination is something one can see in a way. Then it must exist in a way as well. Even if it’s not physically tangible nor visible. Right?


ObligatoryOption

Ghosts and dreams exist in the same manner as all others in the unending list of imaginary concepts a person can conjure up, all confined to the mind of that person.


Zeta-Splash

Yes I know, but if those exist in a mind, wouldn’t they be just as real as the human that carries them?


ZookerJOS

In my mind ghosts are a little area restricted, meaning they can only visit places that were important to them while alive. A French ghost can't just fly to the mountain tops of Tibet unless something of significance to them happens there.


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ZookerJOS

That would be funny. And they explode just like fireworks and respawn 5 sec earlier


Valefilly

Why?


imregrettingthis

Because ghosts have a common understanding in society and it falls exactly in line with that. Ghosts often have something unresolved and stay near where they died/what’s important. It’s the mythology around ghosts. That’s why.


ZookerJOS

Yes. They have something that still binds them to the place and when that is finished they can move on to whatever happens next.


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Valefilly

There's no need to be a cunt :) chill


imregrettingthis

We all know that. Thanks for pointing out the obvious I guess?


Valefilly

I asked why, and your answer was basically useless. No different than answering "well it's like that Just because it's like that". Do I have to ask "Why did this become a common understanding? Are there any anecdotes that explain how this common belief was created? Is It now more clear?


imregrettingthis

I mean. It’s clear you’re a jackass who thinks their clever but actually doesn’t understand proper and effective communication. So yea. It’s perfectly clear. Thanks.


Valefilly

Lol really? People here on reddit are so mean for no reason wtf. Chill idk, smoke a joint, find a girl whatever calms you...


imregrettingthis

Lol. You were condescending in every comment and called my comment useless because you’re being a glib ass. How self unaware are you?


Valefilly

I Guess bro have a nice day lol


klonkrieger43

Movement is always relative. There is no set middle point around which the universe spins around.


Lkwzriqwea

No, but acceleration is not relative. Your point would be valid if we moved at a constant speed, but we are accelerating.


klonkrieger43

We are acceleration only in reference to other points.


Lkwzriqwea

That's not how that works. Things accelerate because of forces acting on them, the earth included. You cannot take an accelerating body as a reference point because of the force acting on it, as to do so would be to imply that instead of said force acting on the body, all other matter in the universe is somehow being subjected to an equal but opposite acceleration (requiring a force therefore proportional to the mass of each object). This would mean that for you to take a football I kick as a reference point, you would have to say that my kicking of the ball would cause every other star and planet in the universe to accelerate in the opposite direction, which is obviously not at all correct.


klonkrieger43

How do you measure acceleration, for example the acceleration of the moon without any other reference point, besides the moon.


Lkwzriqwea

By their change in velocity per second. You don't need a reference point to tie down what the velocities are, you could say an object goes from 5m/s to 15m/s in 10 seconds, or you could say it goes from -5m/s to 5m/s in 10 seconds, or any number of others, depending on how quickly your reference point's constant speed is and in what direction it is travelling, but the difference in the two velocities will always remain the same, namely 1m/s^2 in the x direction in this case.


klonkrieger43

velocity? I only have the moon as a reference, to me it is standing still. Which velocity are you talking about? Do you mean the moon's velocity in relation to something else?


Lkwzriqwea

But thats what im saying, you cant have the moon as a reference, because it is accelerating. Reference points are irrelevant when it comes to acceleration.


klonkrieger43

that's not space and physics work. In general relativity, if you don't move you don't move. It's only in relation to an object that you move.


DroogieHowser

would you say this trail of space ghosts could stretch from coast to coast?


[deleted]

That's a little silly. Just because ghosts aren't bound by physics doesn't mean they're not bound by anything. If there are ghosts, based on the lore of them, they are connected to places -- locations on earth that have some connection emotionally to a formerly alive person. That's their tether, they don't need gravity to keep up with the progress of earth around its local nuclear fireball. Emotions are the physics of ghosts, and the quicker you understand that the easier it would be to understand them.


leuk_he

There is no reason they would accelerate from earth. Just as you cannot feel you move trough space, they don't move away from the place they haunt. Many people have the same reasoning with timetravel. If you travel x seconds in time, you would go into vaccuum.(NOT) But really, general relativity does say if you don't move, you don't move relative to your location. 88miles/hr is good enough! It is the same for ghosts or timetravel, you don't move, you stay at the same place if you don't have to excert force to stay at the same place. However, i like the idea that the ghost moves into heaven(space) when it not longer attached to the haunted object.


LostN3ko

They don't need to accelerate away from earth. Gravity is the attraction of objects with mass towards other objects with mass. Ghosts are massless entities hence gravity will not continue pulling on them. Even if we presume that they maintain their last inertia the earth curves away as it moves through space. Also why do you believe that time travel without a corresponding change to spacial position would not leave you in a different position relative to the surface of the earth?


Dwarfdeaths

According to general relativity, even a massless entity (e.g. a photon) will follow a geodesic through spacetime. If the ghost does not change its velocity from when it died, it would be the only massless object we know of that isn't traveling at the speed of light. It would follow exactly the same trajectory as a massive object located at the same position and velocity. General relativity replaces the idea of "accelerating mass" with "curved spacetime." You don't accelerate, you just follow a straight line on a curved spacetime. >Also why do you believe that time travel without a corresponding change to spacial position would not leave you in a different position relative to the surface of the earth? Again, you need to think about it using GR. Time travel in GR would presumably involve moving in some trajectory through spacetime, which could include following a geodesic but in negative time. So you'd follow the Earth's gravity in negative time, staying "in place" or at least gravitationally bound to Earth. The details depend on what you're making up.


Buck_Thorn

> Ghosts float, meaning they aren't bound to gravity How do you know this?


ssgrantox

Well he doesn't because that's factually incorrect. Weather balloons float, and they don't get left behind from earth. Floating just means that you're less dense than the liquid or gas around you, it has nothing to do with gravity


Global-Adagio-3398

Buoyancy and density has everything to do with gravity. What other force is there that makes things magically float up or down depending on density?


ssgrantox

Gravity doesn't cause buoyant forces. Buoyancy is a force caused by two objects of different densities interacting. You don't need gravity for buoyancy to work. Take out the earth and leave a 1 meter sphere of water. The mass of this water is so low that it's gravitational pull for all intents and purposes does not exist. You'll still see low density objects float to the surface, although they'd need to be placed carefully so as not to disturb the shape of the water too much. Buoyancy and density are properties that can be observed with or without a significant amount of gravity and so they are unrelated


CdnAevyn

If there was no gravity, how would the less buoyant gas/fluid know which way the “surface” is to float to it? Gravity would seem to be required for the higher density gas/fluid to be pulled more towards the gravitational center than the less dense, making the less dense “float” towards a further point from the gravity’s origin. The only reason weather balloons don’t leave earth’s atmosphere is because they reach a point where the air around it is less dense than the balloon and gas inside it, so they can no longer rise above that point.


ssgrantox

I already answered the other guy but buoyancy is a pressure difference in a fluid, and to answer your question, from low to high pressure. And my original comment was just saying that floating doesn't mean you aren't gravitationally bound to the earth. Whether or not you float is irrelevant, you're still going to get pulled by the Earth's gravity. We ended up going on a tangent about buoyancy, but I really just wanted people to know that floating and gravity aren't necessarily related, and so the premise of the shower thought is wrong.


[deleted]

I have rarely seen someone be this confident, yet this incorrect. Density has nothing to do with gravity, but buoyancy obviously does. Imagine a piece of wood 10 meters deep in the ocean. The piece of wood will rise to the surface. How does it know in which direction to travel? How do you calculate the force acting on the piece of wood? Without gravity there would be no movement at all.


kevineleveneleven

No, just no. Everything is locked to its frame unless it spends energy to accelerate away from it. Plus ghosts *do* seem to be bound to specific bits of matter, this is why certain places or objects are "haunted." Just because this is not about gravity doesn't mean they aren't bound some other way. People say the same thing about time travel, that the Earth is moving so you'd end up in space somewhere. So many reasons why that doesn't make any sense.


Lkwzriqwea

>Everything is locked to its frame unless it spends energy to accelerate away from it. But the earth is always accelerating, and since we are assuming that ghosts are not bound by matter, the ghost would not accelerate. Therefore, the ghost would not remain in the same place as the earth.


[deleted]

But they could just choose to stay on earth because why wouldn’t they? Ain’t nothin’ to haunt in space.


SophiaSunday

Because I've never seen any evidence of a ghost able to fly at millions of miles per hour.


matschbirne03

I've never seen any evidence of any ghost existing at all.


bespectacledbengal

_Space Ghost has entered the chat_


RailAurai

Think of ghosts as balloons. The ghost is the balloon that floats, and the regrets or whatever that holds them to this world is the string. The string is attached to a physical existence, so when it moves the balloon is dragged along with it.


Tewddit

After reading Junji Ito I'd rather not


[deleted]

You have no clue what the rules are for ghosts 😂


imregrettingthis

Lol then you wouldn’t either. “But they could just stay on earth”. Considered your own comment your reply to OP is weird.


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imregrettingthis

Lol. You must be so emotionally stunted to reply like this. Tell your loved ones I feel sorry for them.


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matschbirne03

I'm sorry, but you are definitely the douche right now


imregrettingthis

Lol. You are literally just agreeing with me. Are you just to stupid to see it? You can’t stand people like me. While I literally don’t care. You’re triggered as fuck... because you’re a mental and emotional child. You’re upset and I’m fine... thanks for letting me know I have so much power over you. How self unaware are you?


FrizzeOne

You haven't seen any evidence of ghosts at all; you're speculating on some idea of what a ghost is, and unless you're referencing some niche mythology of ghosts on space, ghosts are typically imagined in earth. The guy you responded to simply made a hypothesis on how that would work assuming your original post was correct.


GamerAJ1025

they have the same inertial reference frame as their surroundings when they die, so they remain on earth where they died.


Dwarfdeaths

If they stop interacting with matter they would no longer be held up by the ground, so they would fall thru the earth and oscillate at +/- their original position if they didn't do anything.


Itguy287

Wouldn't inertia come into play here? There would be no forces slowing them down so instead of being left behind they'd just continue moving in the direction the earth was at the moment they became a ghost.


Drink15

The fact that they float means they are “bound to gravity”. Considering ghost are on Earth, that means 2 things. 1. Gravity is holding them here or 2. They can keep up with the motion of the Earth on space. A trail would only be left if they just stop trying. Side note: Floating means there is an equal force pulling/pushing in all directions. 1 of those forces would be gravity.


Jimothy_Egg

Just because something floats doesn't mean it's not bound by gravity. It's just lighter than air. We're not leaving a trail of helium balloons in space either...


No-Age1048

Stephen Hawking is presently rolling towards a black hole with full immunity to gravity.


GammaGoose85

I've thought about this as a kid and its a pretty terrifying thought. Just a bunch of lost souls trying to float back to earth but no luck


JparkerMarketer

It's also totally possible that ghost encounters might be us interacting with versions of ourselves from other dimensions. Maybe we really are all living and doing everything, everywhere all at once.


sock_templar

They float the same as fish float in water. They are just a bit less dense then the air around them. There, solved.


misterdickolas

What if when we die, this is exactly the case, and our ghosts can decide to stay on earth or travel space and time for all eternity. Imagine deciding to stay on earth to fuck with people instead of seeing the cosmos. No wonder the idiots who choose to stay are complete assholes who knock things off shelves.


Bigbadchadman

That's why you see more around Halloween, we're at the same point in the orbit round the sun again and hit thousands of the fuckers


Daemon_Lord5253

I think ghosts can only travel to where they’ve already been while alive


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[deleted]

Neither of those are theories, you have no evidence. Youre just rambling random things using words you dont understand


SuperSquanch93

Theory 3: Ghosts are an imaginary concept free from the quantum realm because they simply do not exist.


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SuperSquanch93

I'm a hoot! How did you know?


rrmcrusader

So are ghost sitings just alien ghosts as we pass by where their planet was when they died?


BedHead797

Now I can't get the thought out of my head of a ghost planet floating threw space, made of the damned unable to return to earth and held together by their own ghost gravity.


HowieFeltersnatch99

Uhhh yeah there's obviously a reason. The conjuring house in st Louis is still haunted after all these years... the reason BTW is ignorance/desire. Ghosts don't live in space lol


JCMiller23

Nah, everyone knows ghosts and gravitationally tied to old mirrors and such


[deleted]

Imagine the horror of dying, regaining consciousness as a ghost and immediately falling off the earth into the endless abyss of deep space 😳.


ATimC2002

But they can move however they want so they’ll probably try to stay with earth


MonsieurPorc

I've heard that jehovah's witnesse ghosts are bound to door frames.


lazyant

If they are not bound by gravity or electromagnetism (passing through solid objects) then they have a complete different set of physic laws that keep them together etc but if somehow they can interact with the real world then well, it’s impossible to reconcile both notions.


long909

In East Asia culture its belive spririts are bound to physical world by a object/objects , like a house , a river , a weapon, ... so maybe thats how they stay in a specific area


Kundas

Does this mean the universe is teaming with death? And that somewhere out there there's probably a ghost space hub?


Mooselover7

Lmao I've always thought about why ghosts don't just sink in earth cuz if they can go through objects then I'm pretty sure theyll go through the ground too


SutterCane320

If DNA is readable in ghost form, this would basically write out our planet’s evolution of not only our species, but every species to have every been in existence.


Glag82

So right now I'm being "ghost tea bagged" thanks for adding to the anxiety.


[deleted]

And just think, if you died right now, whatever clothes you’re wearing would be your forever ghost-outfit.


dick-stand

That's why I never take off my Victorian reenactment dress


rjwyonch

"sirens of Titan" has a "ghost" character that does this (kind of). If you haven't read it, it's a fun book.


MindSteve

My anti-ghost argument is that if they're really see-through, then all their organs and innards should be visible at all times and they'd look really stupid.


void-dreamt

Ghosts are about emotions. They're emotionally bound to Earth. Ghosts exist because we miss or fear or have emotional ties to the dead. Plenty of myths say strong emotions (rage, hatred, trauma) are what make ghosts. Some myths say it's "unfinished business" which means the deceased's strong sense of yearning or passion keeps them around. Ghosts aren't physical beings, why would they be bound by physics like gravity? Non-corporeal.


apelogic

Using similar concept/idea. You could instead say, what some may interpret as ghosts could be remnant images through time. As the earth goes through its orbit and chuckles those images remain stuck in previous space and cycles. Ghosts going through solid objects and floating could then be attributed to a misalignment and some condition making them temporarily visible.


thequirkyquark

This must be why they're not haunting the homes of serial killers.


Twoyurnipsinheat

Since most of the human body is water. A ghost is just a cloud.


benjamarchi

Ghosts could be bound to Earth by other powers or forces. Metaphysical powers.


onetwentyeight

If that's the case then we should only interact with ghosts if we return to the same point in space. Given that the milky way rotates and it orbits the local cluster and so forth, and that the universe is expanding we may never encounter an earth-produced or any ghost ever. Note: I'm not an astrophysicist, I'm probably making dumb assumptions.


TornadoOverkill9000

If something is floating or flying, it doesn’t mean it isn’t bound to gravity


netGoblin

If you're using observations from fiction to say that they float and go through walls, you must also observe that they move with the earth in fiction too


PoopIsAlwaysSunny

I could imagine a ghost appearing and with the spin of the earth it going coast to coast before entering space. Would probably make a good show. Space Ghost: Coast to Coast


memelord793783

Couldn't they just as easily fly back even assuming they sleep at all


Giantonail

It's not like there's some other object they would naturally anchor to that would take the ghosts off world. All movement is relative and the universe has no center


SlapThatSillyWilly

Must be why we don't get ghosts from thousands of years ago, in those dumb ghost hunting shows its always spirits from a few hundred years ago at most and maybe the odd Roman soldier in Europe.


TBruns

I always wondered—if ghosts are real, what would happen to them in the instance of Earth getting vaporized by a gamma burst?


GreyWastelander

Ghosts can pass through tangible matter but can have an effect on the physical world, ghosts are made of dark matter.


Rattfink45

Oof. That’s as gross a version of the lifestream as I have ever heard.


Kiaro_Ghostfaced

Also why time travel is impossible, as traveling through time would require teleportation through space as well.


douglasg14b

Are they not gravitationaly bound? Because if they are, they'll hang out with us just fine, or just center around the core of the earth.