demagogue on 29/3/2007 at 19:42
Quote Posted by Pyrian
Patterns are patterns; similar patterns are frequently formed by functionally similar processes, regardless of scale or material. I can't think of any larger or more fluid stable hexagonal patterns in nature, so...
Well, I'll give you brownie points for thinking outside the box, anyway. I honestly can't think of any very big, stable hexagonal patterns in nature either. I don't think it's a stupid idea. I'm sure plenty of scientific discoveries have been made from these kinds of analogies.
I just thought that a better, more direct starting place was how atmospheric wind currents form than patterns in rock form ... even if you found a similar pattern it might not be very helpful. But it's just a different road to Rome, really, what level you want to look at the question.
Thinking about it, though, I'd be more curious if those rocks were forming from a liquid condensation, as opposed to slow, additive crystal formation. Then you might really be on to something, I'd think.
By the way, ........................... .
This game is so stupid. How do you tell who is winning?
*Zaccheus* on 29/3/2007 at 19:48
Quote Posted by Pyrian
Patterns are patterns; similar patterns are frequently formed by functionally similar processes, regardless of scale or material. I can't think of any larger or more fluid
stable hexagonal patterns in nature, so...
I'm vaguely curious how state transitions are gradual even under massive pressure. That's kind of off the subject, though.
Well, but none of those show stable polygonal artifacts.
I was just thinking ... don't you get fairly straight surfaces when you press bubbles against each other ?
Stitch on 29/3/2007 at 19:58
Quote Posted by Criminal
...........................
What he said here was "I'm not afraid to die."
Uh, no joke. That's what has now been converted into a pusillanimous period parade.
*Zaccheus* on 29/3/2007 at 20:07
Quote Posted by demagogue
Yep.
If we squeezed an extra bubble into this formation (and somehow held it together) wouldn't it give us a hexagon ?
Inline Image:
http://isg.cs.tcd.ie/eg2005/animPics/A2small.jpgThat is to say, a rotating weather system which (for whatever reason) is squeezed like that might also look a bit like a hexagon ?
Sulphur on 29/3/2007 at 20:09
From Wikipedia which, in turn, posts it from an obscure Science e-zine:
Quote:
More extreme speculation has Saturn's radio emissions emanating from the hexagon (something we can see and which has the right rotation period) rather than from the planet's interior (something we cannot see)
It's them damn aliens, I tell you. Next thing you know, someone'll be launching nukes into Saturn's north pole because someone else said those radio emissions began bleeping regular sequences of prime numbers.
Anyway, seriously. The state-change patterns for molten rock cooling to solid may be mirrored in gas to liquid - but neither of these states is fundamentally <i>stable</i>.
Also, it's apparent that the Giant's causeway was made by lava that, essentially, fractured into columns as it cooled. That's as the Wiki explains it. So, as was said earlier, a phenomenon like this would need several more hexagonal brothers accompanying it, and some sort of solidifying surface as well.
I'm sure that by extrapolating atmospheric thickness and density plus the threshold/boundary between which Saturn's atmosphere blends into liquid, PLUS the initial conditions that lead to geological hex formations, someone can work it out.
I'd go with the tidal effects of Saturn's moons and its magnetic field, but then I'm just guessing. :cheeky:
Eurodog on 29/3/2007 at 20:23
My bet is that this is similar to the (
http://www.etl.noaa.gov/about/eo/science/convection/RBCells.jpg) hexagonal 'hot spots' formed in the earths mantle by convection.
'Henry Bènard in 1900 and Lord Rayleigh in 1916 studied convection patterns developing
in fluids heated from below. They analysed the instabilities associated and derived
what is today known in fluid mechanics as the Rayleigh–Bènard model. Convection in
a layer of fluid heated from below is marked by the appearance of hexagonal cells and
the liquid rises from the bottom of the layer in the centre and falls near the wall of each
cell. Subsequent studies in the later half of the last century showed that Bènard’s patterns
were actually driven from the top by surface tension and not from below due to
unstable thermal states and that the same pattern of convection is observed when a
fluid is heated from the top and cooled from below or when heated in the absence of
gravity.'
Part of me is still going 'OMG WTF Alienz!' though......
*Zaccheus* on 29/3/2007 at 20:35
That looks very similar to the bubbles, i.e. the pressure forcing something which would normally have a round shape into a hexagonal shape.
:)
Rug Burn Junky on 29/3/2007 at 20:49
Quote Posted by Criminal
.........................
This is the crappiest morse code ever.
Bjossi on 29/3/2007 at 21:01
That kind of looks like a "petagon", add another bubble mayhaps?
