Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania (USA), Budapest University of Technology and Economics and the University
These ideas resonate with the theory of Greekthe philosopher Plato, who lived in the 5th century BC. He believed that the universe consists of five types of matter: earth, air, fire, water, and space. Plato used the geometry of polyhedrons to explain such properties of matter as hardness, fusibility, airiness, and fire. In this case, a cube was assigned to the earth, an icosahedron to water, an octahedron to air, and a tetrahedron to fire.
The group relied on the theory of geometricmodels developed by the mathematician of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics Gabor Domokos, in whose work it was noted that natural rocks are usually fragmented into cubic forms.
Schoolchildren from Russia discovered an island on Novaya Zemlya
Researchers tried to figure out which shapeformed stones before they broke into pieces. It turned out that the only form in which pieces of the same length can converge into a single material are cubes.
To check if their mathematicalmodels in nature, the team measured a wide range of rocks - they collected hundreds of them on their own, and studied another thousand from existing datasets. Regardless of whether the stones were destroyed naturally or with human intervention, the team determined that they are all collected into cubes.
However, there were rock formations thatviolate the theory of researchers. For example, this is the bridge of giants, which is located in Ireland - soaring vertical columns were formed due to an unusual process of cooling the basalt. However, such formations are rare and rather are an exception that does not fall under the "theory of cubes".
Read also
- Look at the huge “wall” of hundreds of thousands of galaxies behind the Milky Way
- Comet NEOWISE is visible in Russia. Where to see her, where to look and how to take a photo
- It turned out that made the Mayan civilization leave their cities