browse by Subject Category

Sandals, a science webcomic

 

Principal Investigators | Groundhog Day | Secret Ballot | 1 and 0 | Way to Go … | Speed of Light | Butterscotch Sky | A Nice Ring To It | Out of Your Shell | Skin Deep … | RSS Feed

A Nice Ring To It by Dave Horlick  Wed, 12 Apr 2006 12:30:07 GMT

Zeke: That planet Saturn sure is something. | Bridget: It's a fact.Zeke: What's the deal with the ring? | Bridget: What about it?Zeke: How did it come to be, you know, ring-shaped? | Meg: …and not shaped like a cloud. Or like a short stack of pancakes.Bridget: I don't know what planetary rings are made out of, but for the sake of argument, let's say tetherballs.Our friends have relocated to a tetherball court. | Bridget: Start them going around the pole in a flat ring. | Bridget, Meg and Zeke all hit tetherballs counter-clockwise around a tetherball pole. | Zeke: Pow!Bridget: Now hit one out of the ring. | Zeke leaps up and knocks one of the tetherballs upwards and out of its orbit. | Zeke: Nyggh!The rogue tetherball reaches its zenith and heads back down.Bridget: They're going to collide!Bridget: Tetherballs seem to prefer orbiting in a ring. | Meg: or not at all!

Saturn texture map: Björn Jónsson


Principal Investigators | Groundhog Day | Secret Ballot | 1 and 0 | Way to Go … | Speed of Light | Butterscotch Sky | A Nice Ring To It | Out of Your Shell | Skin Deep … | RSS Feed

 


Copyright 2006, Dave Horlick