Physics/maths Question

[R B Customs]

this one has been bugging me for years and none of my teachers at school seemed to know.
here goes

Hyperthetically speaking: ( ideal situation)

if you had a perfectly FLAT, SMOOTH surface

and an absolutly PERFECT sphere / ball of about 10 CM in diametre

you rest the ball onto the perfect surface. how much of the ball is touchign the surface?


__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

Part 2

if you had the same scenario as above, but this time the ball was say 100CM in diametre.
how much of the ball would be touching? would it be more than that of the smaller ball ?



inspiration:

 

[R B Customs]

some interesting rplies here !

as i said this is entirly hyperthetical. so deformation / sagging of objects doesnt count here.

i was thinking 1 atom my self. but when you visualise a REALL big ball and a REALLY small one. its hard to think that its the same surface area touching.

interesting answer AJ

Rick

 

[R B Customs]

damn this is an interesting thread

a few people are missing the point a little i think. i am aware that there is a lot missing from my original question. but i suppose you could look at this not from a nuclear way but from a more diagramatic approach.

i thoguth of this question years ago in school and it just came back to me recently. it troubled bme beacuse a circle is an arc, no finish and no end.

push a glass, or a mug up to a wall and look at the rim, follow it round... the moment the edge of the rim curves round toward the wall the wall is the exact moment that it starts to curve away.

i suppose this theory would work with egg shaped objects based on how its curvature is constant.

im startign to believe the answer is Zero.