Science Non-Scavenger Hunt
You can find some answers (some better than others) to this puzzle very easily using Google. So, let’s not cheat. This is a non-scavenger hunt. Use what you already know to find the answer. This came from a book I read a few years back, and the answer is surprising.
I have a standard sized beach ball (18″ diameter), a piece of rope that fits snugly around it at the center, and another piece of rope, 2 feet long. If I add this 2 foot piece of rope to the piece of rope that fits snugly around the golf ball, I will find that the circle made by the new length of rope leaves about a four inch gap between it and the beach ball.
Now, if we had a perfect sphere the same diameter as the earth, also with a rope that fit snugly around, and we added our two foot piece of rope to that one, how big a gap would the new length leave between the rope and the surface of the sphere?
I’ll congratulate the winner and/or post the answer Monday.
The same gap. I figured it out trying to confirm your numbers with the ball. When I solved the formula, I realized that it would always add 7.64″ to the diameter regardless of diameter. Good one!
You nailed it… Hard to imagine adding two feet to a piece of rope & it adding a nearly 4″ gap all the way around the world, but that’s how it works.
Crap…and I was going to say…”Netflix?”
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