eli5 why are most natural holes circles?
In: 6
Things in nature tend to be circular rather than angular.
If you punch a square hole in the ground, for example, the angles mean that the walls are experiencing stresses differently. Then the weakest parts of the walls keep caving in until the forces are equal, which results in a round hole.
It’s a similar principle behind bubbles being round. A cube is an “inefficient” shape, so even if you made a square bubble, the corners (which are the farthest apart from the center) would be pulled in until it popped back into a spherical shape.
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