Title text:
A lot of the highway department's budget goes to adjusting the sign whenever the moon passes directly overhead.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3174/
this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2025
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You're onto the right answer. At some point:
the middle of the lory would be the center of gravity of the lory, and no longer have any grip on the road. Making it a space lory with the lower parts dragging in the atmosphere.
the top of the lory would be so tall that if it was driving, the change in angle of a fraction of a degree would make the top of the lory travel faster than light to keep up. This might happen sooner than running into other stars. If the lorry is 1 light year tall and goes over bump that changes its angle by only 1 degree, the top of the lory would move 1.6 x 10^11^km within a few seconds. So the lory might sheer apart, or would sway like a skyscraper in wind with each molecule moving at the speed of light all over the place as the truck bumps around on a road where even minute variations would make the top move wildly.
That is absolutely true, but the intention of the question is different. The lorry is imaginary - imagilorry.