first you have to get the mule's attention

Anton Sherwood (dasher@netcom.com)
Sat, 26 Jul 1997 22:43:25 -0700

danny explains
: No, Im saying the whole planet was 80% the size that it is now. And
: scientists can tell this by the way the continents fit right now. When you
: put them together there are spaces between them which grow in size the
: further north and south you go, but this space is no longer there when you
: shrink the whole planet to 80% of what it is now, then they fit perfectly.

Yes, you said that. Repeating it is no help.
Where does the extra volume come from?

I should also point out that the continents *cannot* "fit perfectly" on
a smaller globe. I need not look at them to say so. The difference in
curvature must introduce distortions. As mapmakers do when squashing
the globe to the plane, you can choose among several kinds of distortion
(of shape, of area, of distance, of straight lines) -- but such selection
makes the mapping to the smaller globe arbitrary, and therefore suspect.

I'm surprised nobody has said the continents have shrunk by 1/5.

: I forgot to mention scientists think this is due to the very dense core
: being transfered to the much less dense mantle.

Transferred how? By injections of gas (or antimatter) into the core?
By dwarves shifting slag out of their mines?

Anton Sherwood *\\* +1 415 267 0685 *\\* DASher@netcom.com