Under the Band
Imagine you are on a perfectly smooth sphere as big as our sun. A steel band is stretched tightly around the equator.
One yard of steel is added to the length of the band so that it is raised from the sphere's surface the same distance all the way around.
Will the distance between the steel band and the sphere be enough to:
1) slip a playing card between?
2) slip your hand between?
3) slip a baseball between?
One yard of steel is added to the length of the band so that it is raised from the sphere's surface the same distance all the way around.
Will the distance between the steel band and the sphere be enough to:
1) slip a playing card between?
2) slip your hand between?
3) slip a baseball between?
posted by Zaux at
4:53 PM
5 Comments:
Anything less than 1 yard / 2*pi will fit, i.e. less than 5.73 inches.
Not being from the US of A I would say probably a baseball, maybe a softball? We do metres, centimetres and cricket balls where I come from.
This question has been asked in some form or another before on this site (involving a rope around the earth as opposed to the sun), at least once, but I suspect more.
But as a recap:
C=circumference of rope
L=length added to rope
X=change in radius from adding L
C=2*Pi*R
C+L=2*Pi*(R+X)
C+L-C=2*Pi(R+X)-2*Pi*R
L=2*Pi*X
X=L/(2*Pi)
X=1/(2*Pi)
X~=0.159yards or 0.477 feet or 14.55 cm
A baseball should be able to comfortably squeeze through.
Cam
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Cam ... sorry if a repeat ... I searched the name and did not get a hit.
so if a baseball could fit through it and the other choices are thinner than a baseball, wouldn't it be D. all of the above?
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