There is an exact equivalent in how much weight can an egg shell support
Come on Orac you shouldnt use an egg shell when making an example of the earth , however your use of a balloon was a good example.
that is about as wrong as you could get , I could see if you were to use a egg whose shell has been cracked several times and the cracks were all connected.
as in the below egg shell whose cracks are all connected!
do you think that this egg shell would support that much weight?
extremely wrong Orac ;-)
ie...
the earth has cracks in it , as below in much the same manner as the cracked egg shell above does.
find a mirror look into it at yourself and say this.
Again totally wrong way of looking at it.
I assure you that is the exact same situation and weight per unit area matters on earth not the weight itself.
get a really thin sheet of cardboard.
apx 1/8 inch x 12 inch x 12 inch
fill you bathtub with water.
place the sheet of cardboard on top of the water.
now go to mcdonnalds and get a large coke.
slowly take ice from your drink and place the ice on the thin sheet of cardboard. (starting at the center of the thin sheet of cardboard)
notice how the cardboard begins to sink into the water.
now take a picture of it.
then wait until the ice melts.
take another picture of it.
compare the differences in height above water level.
repeat the experiment only this time cut the cardboard into
squares.
make (9) 4 inch x 4 inch squares.
place the small squares in the water in your bathtub.
assemble the small squares into a large square
note : do not use superglue, nails, cement or any other means to reconnect the squares together in order to sabotage the experiment just to prove your point.
when you place the ice on the center 4 x 4 inch square
does the center square sink more rapidly than the 12 x 12 square used in the previous experiment?
can it hold as much ice as the 12 x 12 square used in the previous experiment?
knowing that water is not as thick as magma is you should repeat the experiment using strawberry pudding.
will the strawberry pudding support the ice sitting on top of the center square better than the water?
if not do you think it would be better to pour concrete into your bathtub to use as the supportive structure that the earths crust sit on?
do you think it would be even better if you allow the concrete to fully dry before performing the experiment?
is there any way out of this?
Now use the flats of your hands and try and get the walls to move anywhere near as close .... Area matters :-)
yes it does.
and applying an example correctly also matters.
hers a good one.
place your balloon between two surfaces then put your fingers on the top and bottom of the balloon.
press your fingers into the balloon until the balloon touches the two surfaces in a manner that the periphery (equator) of the balloon is touching the two surfaces.
now consider the fingers as the ice caps.
as long as you hold pressure on the balloons north and south poles the balloons periphery will support the balloon because it is in contact with the two surfaces.
as soon as you release pressure from the poles the balloon will drop.
the pressure is distributed evenly inside the balloon.
so... why didnt the 4 x 4 inch square support as much ice as the 12 x 12 inch square.
would this mean that the areas further away from the poles will not be as affected as those areas closer to the poles?
when you moved your fingers didnt the balloon regain its original shape?
