DebateGate
General Category => 3DHS => Topic started by: Plane on August 16, 2011, 10:29:40 AM
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http://news.discovery.com/space/what-if-earth-was-a-cube-110815.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1 (http://news.discovery.com/space/what-if-earth-was-a-cube-110815.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1)
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It is unlikely that any planet would be cube-shaped. Gravity and millions of years tend to make even small asteroids rather roundish. I believe we have a few rather potato-shaped asteroids.
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Yes , there is probably a maximum size for irregular shapes.
On Mars there is a mountain taller than any on Earth, the smaller gravity of Mars probly makes this possible.
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There is probably not a maximum size for mountains on planets, but there is surely a tendency of planetary surfaces to become smoother with the passage of time. The height of Earth's mountains are the result of tectonic activity driving them up, and erosion by wind and weather smoothing them down. I don't think Mars has enough free water to freeze and thaw, which tends to break up rocks, and Mars has a puny atmosphere" probably not much weather and wind.
It would be unlikely for there to be a cubical planet. We will never know for certain, as the universe is too big to see it all.
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There is a maximum slope for a pile of sand, you see it everytime you see a sand pile.
This slope woud be diffrent on a planet with diffrent gravity.
Any mountain with greater slope is depending on the strength of its stone to support the steep slope.
So the maximum size of a mountain has to depend on the strength of its stone vs the strength of the gravity it is in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_repose (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_repose)
http://randomroving.blogspot.com/2009/04/slope-of-sand-pile.html (http://randomroving.blogspot.com/2009/04/slope-of-sand-pile.html)
http://tnw.tudelft.nl/en/about-faculty/departments/quantum-nanoscience/research/research-groups/theoretical-physics/people/faculty/jy-thijssen/sand-pile-simulation/ (http://tnw.tudelft.nl/en/about-faculty/departments/quantum-nanoscience/research/research-groups/theoretical-physics/people/faculty/jy-thijssen/sand-pile-simulation/)