Take a piece of string and wrap it around the earth's equator, and then add one meter to the string's length. Now wrap it around again in a perfect circle so that it's floating above the equator, and measure the width of the gap between the string and the ground. Now do the same...

+163 Take a piece of string and wrap it around the earth's equator, and then add one meter to the string's length. Now wrap it around again in a perfect circle so that it's floating above the equator, and measure the width of the gap between the string and the ground. Now do the same thing with a golf ball. Both gaps have the same width, amirite?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Am I missing something? How does this make sense? Regardless, Earth's equator isn't a perfect circle so that doesn't work. Math nerd my ass.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Ok, I circled the equator but I still can't find a damn golf ball.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Prove it.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The circumference of the string around the Earth floating over the equator would be equal to: 1+C, where C is the circumference of the Earth.The diameter of the string is (1+C)/π, and the diameter of the Earth is C/π (because Circumference/π=diameter).Subtracting the diameters ((1+C)/π - C/π) would get you 1+C-C, or 1 meter. Divide that in half to get the distance of the string to the Earth on one side, which is .5 meters. This can be done with any sphere, using the middle as a circle (like the Equator). All you have to do is substitute the circumference of the Earth to the circumference of anything else, like a golf ball, and the steps will still result in .5 meters. And I am not MathNerd, but I am a math nerd.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

except when you subtract ((1+C)/π - C/π)....you get (1+C-C)/π....1/π..../2...then you have ur answer

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Sounds like one hell of a holiday.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Excuse me while i go circle the Earth's equator... Oh darn it! I can't find my spacesuit and rocketship!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You're supposed to WALK around the Earth.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Except for the oceans

by Anonymous 13 years ago

No, you have to walk through those too.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Unless you're Jesus

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Moses...?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

No, Moses moved the ocean to walk on the sea floor, Jesus just made the water his bitch and walked all over it

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Oops sorry. It's just when I read that part, I imagined a giant in outerspace holding the Earth and wrapping the string around the equator, kinda like we'd do with the golf ball. It was late and I was sleep deprived.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It's because you increase both by meter/pi which is around 32 cm. It would float around 16 cm above the surface. You have the diameter of sphere E, which is C(E)/pi. You add 1 to C, which gives C+1/pi or (C/pi + 1/pi). Overall you've added 1/pi to the diameter. Same goes for the ball, because no matter what C of it is, you're adding 1/pi to the whole thing.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Holy shit, that totally makes sense. But every time I think about it logically, not mathematically, it doesn't. I have a feeling this is gonna keep me up tonight...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Whaaaa???? Haha

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You need to know basic geometry to understand.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I know plenty of basic geometry, shit I'm in AP calc and I still don't get it...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Lol, it's simple. I might have explained it in a complex way. Here's a small example: (1+2)/3 = (3)/3 = 1 1/3 + 2/3 = 3/3 = 1 So, they're the same thing, right? You can add the top parts together, and then divide, or you can divide them separately and then add them. So, if 2 is the ball's circumference, and 1 is the meter you add, then you just add 1/3 every time you add a meter to any circumference. If the circumference was like 50 billion, you'd get the result of (50 billion)/3 plus 1/3. You add the same amount to the diameter every time.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I read it as using the same piece of string from the world and wrap it around the golf ball.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I read it as using the same piece of string from the world and wrap it around the golf ball.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

HENRI CONFUS-ED!!!!!!!!!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

MEGAN CONFUS-ED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

paul writes without caps lock

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I interpreted it as instructing me to wrap a string around the equator a second time, this time with a golf ball on my person.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

okay so it was really just a thing that's interesting I learned this when I was in Physics class last year. As the person up there said when they explained it. With a "perfect" sphere you can create a circle around it with rope if you then add 1m or 3cm or whatever you want to add to the length of the rope you will create a gap around it that gap will be the same as long as the sphere is a perfect sphere no matter what the size of it is. My teacher taught us that like on the second day of class by making us figure it out. I did it by using the unit circle that I learned about in Calculus that day. Very interesting physics is.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I assume by interesting, you mean a bitch and pain in the ass.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

wat

by Anonymous 13 years ago

"Take a piece of string and wrap it around the earth's equator," OP says, as if it's just so easy. Bah.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

a meter will make a lot less difference going around the world, it'll only be a fraction of an inch off the ground, but the golfball will be around a foot...i really don't understand someone please explain clearly

by Anonymous 13 years ago