The planets are round because of gravity. (Photo: Thinkstock)
Today’s question:
Why are all the planets so perfectly round and not square or oval or jagged?
Well. They’re not quite perfectly round but pretty close to it. Because of the forces of gravity and the spinning, Saturn and Jupiter tend to bulge a bit at the middle, as do so many of us.
It is interesting to imagine how things would be different if our planet was, say, pyramid shaped or conical or something other than round.
Interesting perhaps, but a waste of time since our planet is round and round it shall always be. Or at least we hope so.
Anyway, the planets are round because of gravity.
Billions of years ago, when the universe was just starting out, there were innumerable bits of gas and dust floating around out there.
Our friend Mr. Gravity gradually began to pull all those bits together into spinning clumps that grew bigger and bigger until they became planets.
At first, most of those young planets were really hot and only about half-cooked. Then gravity took over and pulled all that molten stuff into the core in the shape of sphere.
Since gravity pulls equally on all sides and pulls from the center toward the edges, we will always be spherical and never triangular, as interesting as that might have been.
Who is the sadist that invented the individual wrappers for Band-Aids? You are bleeding and have to open the Band-Aid almost with one hand.
Earle Dickson, a cotton buyer for Johnson & Johnson, came up with the design in 1921 because his wife kept cutting herself in the kitchen.
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