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(Discover) Interesting Size *does* matter. Especially when you're rock hard   (blogs.discovermagazine.com) divider line 12
More: Interesting, spheres, center of mass, Cassini Spacecraft, surface tension, Prometheus, IAU, gravity, OTOH  
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6417 clicks; posted to Geek » on 20 Jan 2012 at 2:06 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



12 Comments   (+0 »)
   
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thomps [TotalFark]
2012-01-20 01:50:37 PM
so i get how gravity creates spheres, but a little explanation behind why surface tension creates spheres and why random collisions would sculpt spheres rather than asymmetrical hunks of ice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Mt. Honkey
2012-01-20 02:17:53 PM
thomps: so i get how gravity creates spheres, but a little explanation behind why surface tension creates spheres and why random collisions would sculpt spheres rather than asymmetrical hunks of ice would be greatly appreciated.

Surface tension makes spheres because a sphere is the shape with the least surface area for a given volume. The tension is a force where each part of the surface is pulling on the adjacent parts of the surface, so the surface will shrink until it cannot shrink anymore, becoming a sphere.

As for the collisions I'm not so sure about that. He may be making an analogy with weathering, but I'm not convinced that's right.
 
Animatronik
2012-01-20 02:18:26 PM
thomps: so i get how gravity creates spheres, but a little explanation behind why surface tension creates spheres and why random collisions would sculpt spheres rather than asymmetrical hunks of ice would be greatly appreciated.

surface tension is caused by the forces that attract water molecules to their neghbors. These forces cause a water droplet to minimize its surface area. A sphere has the minimum surface area per unit volume.
 
Quantumbunny
2012-01-20 02:23:18 PM
You're damn right size matters... especially with Moons. I'm sick of every farking tennis ball sized rock counting as a moon.

If Pluto doesn't get to be a planet anymore, let's step up to the plate with a more refined Moon definition next. Hopefully something large enough to exclude asteroids and small rocks. If it ain't big (or massive) enough to hold a spheroid shape, why the hell does it get a title as grandiose as Moon? It can be a satellite, but Moon should have some damn standards.
 
thomps [TotalFark]
2012-01-20 02:31:58 PM
Mt. Honkey: thomps: so i get how gravity creates spheres, but a little explanation behind why surface tension creates spheres and why random collisions would sculpt spheres rather than asymmetrical hunks of ice would be greatly appreciated.

Surface tension makes spheres because a sphere is the shape with the least surface area for a given volume. The tension is a force where each part of the surface is pulling on the adjacent parts of the surface, so the surface will shrink until it cannot shrink anymore, becoming a sphere.

As for the collisions I'm not so sure about that. He may be making an analogy with weathering, but I'm not convinced that's right.

Animatronik: thomps: so i get how gravity creates spheres, but a little explanation behind why surface tension creates spheres and why random collisions would sculpt spheres rather than asymmetrical hunks of ice would be greatly appreciated.

surface tension is caused by the forces that attract water molecules to their neghbors. These forces cause a water droplet to minimize its surface area. A sphere has the minimum surface area per unit volume.

much obliged
 
HotIgneous Intruder
2012-01-20 03:22:08 PM
Sexual metaphor in the context of Saturn's moons ... uh, no.

/Subby fail
 
sendtodave
2012-01-20 03:22:27 PM
Animatronik: surface tension is caused by the forces that attract water molecules to their neghbors.

So, tension makes them wet?

Giggity.
 
that bosnian sniper
2012-01-20 04:57:36 PM
Quantumbunny: If Pluto doesn't get to be a planet anymore...

Pluto's a grower, not a shower.
 
LoneVVolf
2012-01-20 06:33:42 PM
Mt. Honkey:
As for the collisions I'm not so sure about that. He may be making an analogy with weathering, but I'm not convinced that's right.

I'm not sure anything he's said is right. Anyone responsible to printing "I bet if we could get a super-duper close look at Saturn's rings, we'd see the trillions of chunks of ice that make up the rings are round too." in a scientific publication, peer reviewed or not, deserves an academic cockpunch.
 
blahpers
2012-01-20 06:53:05 PM
LoneVVolf: Mt. Honkey:
As for the collisions I'm not so sure about that. He may be making an analogy with weathering, but I'm not convinced that's right.

I'm not sure anything he's said is right. Anyone responsible to printing "I bet if we could get a super-duper close look at Saturn's rings, we'd see the trillions of chunks of ice that make up the rings are round too." in a scientific publication, peer reviewed or not, deserves an academic cockpunch.

Dude. It's a blog. Scientists don't have to sound like they're lecturing all the time.
 
Mt. Honkey
2012-01-20 06:58:25 PM
blahpers: Dude. It's a blog. Scientists don't have to sound like they're lecturing all the time.

They don't have to sound like they're lecturing, but they should be correct. Mind you I'm not saying he's wrong, but from the way he phased it I'm pretty sure he doesn't know he's right.
 
profplump [TotalFark]
2012-01-21 03:39:44 AM
Mt. Honkey: As for the collisions I'm not so sure about that.

I agree there's some handwaving there, but the basic idea seems sound.

He's suggesting that in a group of randomly spinning objects, portions of an object further from the axis of rotation are more likely to be involved in a collision than portions closer to the axis, simply because those portions have a higher linear speed. So in cases where the collision forces are great enough to break off part of the object it's more likely that portions further from the axis of rotation will be removed. Given a enough number of impacts over enough time this will make many of the objects round (or at least more round than they started out).
 
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