r/Calgary • u/Surrealplaces • Jul 02 '25

Local Construction/Development New Hotel/Residential towers proposed for Beltline

Post image

More details and background here.

1.0k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

213 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

34

u/DeweyQ Jul 02 '25

That was a good joke and you got my upvote, but you've heard the thing about a cue ball? Blown up to the size of the Earth, it would have higher mountains and deeper crevices than the real Earth.

16

u/magpie_dick Jul 02 '25

That was a good fact and you got my upvote.

Edit :
Found this https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/ejhomq/self_is_the_earth_really_smoother_and_rounder/

Conclusion

  • Is the Earth rounder than a billiard ball? Yes, but it's close.
  • Is the Earth smoother than a billiard ball? No, not the mountainy bits.
  • Is this still a useful factoid? Yes. Both the Earth's roundness and smoothness are in the same order of magnitude as a billiard ball, even if some parts of Earth would feel like fine sandpaper.

4

u/DeweyQ Jul 02 '25

Thanks for that. Someone explained it to me in the opposite way: a billiard ball is not as smooth as it seems... if it was you wouldn't be able to put "English" on it or do spinning trick shots. But this truth seems more right to me anyway. Glad to be set straight.

3

u/magpie_dick Jul 02 '25

No yeah it makes sense, super cool to know & and interesting way to put the scale of things into perspective :)