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Correct!Inferno said:Gravity.
Stripe said:Next question - and this should be a simple answer also. If the Earth were rendered significantly non-spherical, what would happen?
God actually WOULD play dice?
Sounds like a movie directed by Roland Emmerich.Stripe said:Correct!Inferno said:Gravity.
Told you it was easy.
Next question - and this should be a simple answer also. If the Earth were rendered significantly non-spherical, what would happen?
Stripe said:Next question - and this should be a simple answer also. If the Earth were rendered significantly non-spherical, what would happen?
nasher168 said:Stripe said:Next question - and this should be a simple answer also. If the Earth were rendered significantly non-spherical, what would happen?
It is slightly non-spherical.
It's an oblate spheroid, like this, only not quite as pronounced:
It would eventually become more or less spherical again.Stripe said:Next question - and this should be a simple answer also. If the Earth were rendered significantly non-spherical, what would happen?
Good point. Let's say a 1/4 Moon size chunk was teleported from continental USA to somewhere close to our second nearest sun.nasher168 said:Ah, just noticed that Stripe said "significantly non-spherical", not "slightly non-spherical"
What would happen, you ask?
Well it depends what has caused it to become significantly non-spherical. Maybe it has started spinning much, much faster for some reason. Or maybe it has been blown to pieces by a colossal explosion.
Something would have to cause it to become significantly non-spherical.
Well first of all everyone dies.Stripe said:Good point. Let's say a 1/4 Moon size chunk was teleported from continental USA to somewhere close to our second nearest sun.nasher168 said:Ah, just noticed that Stripe said "significantly non-spherical", not "slightly non-spherical"
What would happen, you ask?
Well it depends what has caused it to become significantly non-spherical. Maybe it has started spinning much, much faster for some reason. Or maybe it has been blown to pieces by a colossal explosion.
Something would have to cause it to become significantly non-spherical.
Now you've got a round Earth with a great big hole in it. What happens?
Right! Gravity would make it spherical once more. We can see this on a small scale in open cast mining when the floor of the mine buckles upward because of the mass removed above it. Or in the center of a complex crater on the Moon.ImprobableJoe said:It would eventually become more or less spherical again.
I have this feeling that you want to take this somewhere very specific. If so, you may as well lay it all out because we've already pointed out several immediately obvious consequences and apparently they're not what you're looking for.Stripe said:Right! Gravity would make it spherical once more. We can see this on a small scale in open cast mining when the floor of the mine buckles upward because of the mass removed above it. Or in the center of a complex crater on the Moon.ImprobableJoe said:It would eventually become more or less spherical again.
What two obvious consequences will result from such a reformation of the Earth's mass?