I'd like to take this moment, at the end of a semester of cratering classes, to admire my planetary cratering professor. I really like him. He thinks the same way I do, and this is how...

He was in Hawaii for some conference or something, and he was watching a field of pineapples being watered by sprinklers. He suddenly wondered why the sprinkler is designed so that it doesn't water continuously, but that it is designed to shudder, thuk thuk thuk shrrrrrrr thuk thuk thuk shrrrrrr... the reason it does that is because if you had water coming out of the sprinkler head continuously, it sticks together due to the surface tension that water has and would follow an arch as a cohesive column of water. The effect of a column of water is to jettison the water droplets further than they would normally go (because they are effectively being pushed from behind) and to get a ring around your sprinkler where the water does not land. To stop this from happening, the sprinkler sends out spurts of water, a jerky jet, and is continuously moving. This causes the column of water to be interrupted. Then, depending on the size, angle and velocity of the drop, it follows an independent ballistic trajectory and comes down at any radius from the sprinkler head, from right next to it all the way out to its farthest extent. A single drop can't water as far out as a stream of water, but it does water so that you don't get huge dead circles of grass or pineapples right around your sprinkler head. My professor likens this to trying to throw a single drop of water to a window on the 10th floor of a building. You can't do it. The kind of energy that would have to be applied to the drop would simply vaporize it, or the atmosphere would pull it apart. However, you've seen firemen's hoses that can reach up to the 10th floor.
Anyway, after communing with the pineapple field, it occured to him that the spray of the sprinkler was not unlike the outward moving ejecta curtain that forms when a meteor impacts a planetary body. The curtain goes from being one, solid stream of rock with tremendous energy, to suddenly becoming thin enough for air to flow through, causing the curtain to suddenly be porous enough that the solidity of the curtain is ruined and each piece of rocky ejecta suddenly acts as its own body and falls to the Earth ballistically.

Pete sees science (particularly cratering) in everything. He watches waves, beating against a shore. He once dug a crater in the ashtray at a hotel and then tapped gently on the side to see how a crater could be made to subside over time on a planetary surface.
When I walk along the streets of Providence, I see that the sidewalks are totally broken up into all kinds of crazy jagged pieces. No one ever fixes the bricks, the cement, anything. But the cracks!! Each one tells you something both about the stress that the sidewalk has been under and the structural weaknesses of the cement. When I look at the clouds, I see how two air flows of different densities have made the clouds form waves, long sets of parallel linear clouds like sets of waves at the beach. There is a bulge in the linoleum on the way to the restroom at work. I know if I could dissect it I could learn something about planetary wrinkle ridges, I just know it.

The way Pete thinks, it reminds me of that quote from Life Of Pi (best book ever) which says, "Hindus, in their capacity for love, are indeed hairless Christians, just as Muslims, in the way they see God in everything, are bearded Hindus, and Christians, in their devotion to God, are hat-wearing Muslims."

The part of the quote that reminds me of him is the "The way they see God in everything" part. Because seeing order, structure, patterns and similarities between all types and scales of life, people and the natural world is my way of seeing God in everything.

Peel back the layers of God's elegant creations, and all you will find are additional layers of elegance therein.

In any case.
Casual concurrence xanax no prescription needed Excuse, the message is removed where to get xanax It to you a science. buy xanax cheap It is remarkable, very useful phrase cheap ultram What interesting message generic xanax bars 27a5fb
» Everett (184.72.55.208) on 2011-06-08 07:51:00

What words... super, a magnificent idea
It agree, very useful message buy meridia It is removed (has mixed section) fluconazole dosage What for mad thought? order synthroid I agree with you buy zyban online I congratulate, a magnificent idea buy valium online 7a5fb50
» Olen (92.61.189.2) on 2011-07-09 02:19:56

Name.

URL.

[to enter your email, use "mailto:[email protected]"]
Subject.

Comment.

Word verification.

Copy the first 4 characters only.

If you are a member, try logging in again or accessing this page here.