🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec15.013620.24161@galois.mit.edu> jbaez@riesz.mit.edu (John C. Baez) writes:

>Imagine an extremely (although not infinitely) rigid crystal.  It takes
>a huge amount of energy to deform the crystal lattice ever so slightly.
>Thus if this crystal is placed in the earth's gravitational field at sea
>level, the curvature of space due to the gravity prevents the
>lattice from being perfectly regular, at the cost of a large amount of
>energy.  The crystal would have much less energy if it were far away
>from the earth where the curvature of space is less.  If we make the
>crystal rigid enough it will actually be energetically favorable for the
>crystal to float upwards - since the decrease in its internal energy
>will more than compensate for the increase in gravitational potential
>energy.

This is an amusing variation on the "bird in an airplane" game :-)
Consider the forces rather than the energy. . .

David.
--
David Fenyes                                 dfenyes@thesis1.med.uth.tmc.edu
University of Texas Medical School           Houston, Texas