I’m honestly really hungry, I have no idea how I am going to get through this video….
Let’s give it a crack though, shall we!
DONUTS are traditionally shaped as thick circular doughs with a hole in the middle – the official
term for which is a toroid.
Planets, on the other hand, are balls with many layers, at the centre of which lies a
core.
BUT WHAT if they were toroids.
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions – I am your hungry host, Rebecca
Felgate and today I am asking WHAT if Earth was shaped like a donut.
I don’t now why that image of Homer from the Simpsons after he sells his soul to have
his head shaped like a donut keeps popping into my head… it is irrelevant.
Forget that image.
Before we get into this video, I want to ask you all what your favourite type of donut
is?
Shout out to my mate Caroline who regularly goes donutting with me!
I think my favourite would controversially have to be a filled donut…glazed and filled
with a kind of lemony cream.
DAMN IT IM HUNGRY AGAIN.
Leave me your thoughts and hit that thumbs up button to show you like our content….and
if you don’t yet have notifications turned on…what are you doing….you don’t want
to miss out on the food and clever things chat.
SO – while this question sounds crazy, in terms of physics – a donut shaped world
is possible, although much less likely to work long term than a spheroid because it
would be much less stable.
SO, if earth was shaped like a donut – firstly, our planet currently works because the core
of the earth is so dense it draws in matter – that’s the way gravity works.
A donut planet could work without the dense core IF it was spinning fast enough – the
way water wont fall out of a bucket if you spin it around you fast enough.
While that sounds like it would make you pretty dizzy – no worries – you wouldn’t feel
it.
Earth is moving at 1000 miles per hour as is, because we’re so small and the earth
so big, we’re none the wiser…however it would effect the duration of our earth days
significantly.
Humans and wildlife alike are pretty in tune with our earths day/night schedule….by and
large, we are awake during sunlight hours and sleep during our night hours.
On a Donut earth, the day would be 2.84 hours long, so light, dark, light, dark….a barrage
of quick sunrises and sunsets….
Had we evolved on a donut earth, maybe this wouldn’t vex us, but as animals that love
structure, this would be WEIRD to say the very least.
SO the lighting states don’t get any better towards the inner of the donut, where people
may see polar nights for half the year….although with visible earth rising around the ring,
there is more surface area to reflect light when it is shining, meaning at times this
would be the brightest place to be!
Because of the shape of the earth, life would be verrrry different depending in where on
the donut you lived….
The gravity at inward of the poles would be the greatest and it would be the weakest at
the equator – on earth we cant really feel too much gravitational difference but on donut
earth we would.
It would also likely be hotter at the poles too.
Topography speaking, it seems the new earth shape would likely cause mountainous regions
around rim of the donut hole… and apparently these would be YUGE!
I wonder if we could fly planes though the middle of the planet?
That might be fun and efficient….
But what would the change in earth shape mean for gravity.
It actually turns out that gravity may be the least of our problems with air travel….
Because of the shape of donut earth and its need to spin super fast to remain intact,
earth would experience some VERY intense weather!
There would be wild and raging winds, huge storms and massive fluctuations of temperatures
depending on where you lived.
It would make travel and day to day living pretty difficult and inconsistent.
You know how we all love a bit of GPS….
Well….
get ready to get lost – satellites wouldn’t really work too well with our new earth shape….they
wouldn’t orbit in the way they do now.
ANNND speaking of orbits….
Say goodbye to our beautiful moon!
What would this mean for the tides – well the whole shape of the earth has changed so
legit who even really knows what is going on there.
SO I guess the takeaway from this should be – woah – donut shaped planets could exist….athough
they’re very improbably and oooh, living on one would be pretty intense because they’re
pretty volatile.
I am pretty happy with our spherical earth….
It basically does the trick, right?
Final thought - Do you think out there somewhere there is a band of donut earthers, like flat
earthers?
ANYWAY, I hope you enjoyed this answer!
What would you guys do on a donut earth?
Don’t forget to tell me what your favourite donut is, too… that is very important information!
Before I go I just want to read a couple of comments from one of my recent videos – I
made a video called What if the Sun Went Out for 24 hours and this is what you had to say.
JewJupiter Weeweddle said: I love the sun….. mate, me too.
Grey World wrote: A Black sun sounds interesting.
Its Noelia wrote: What if we could live in the sun?
Please do leave a thumbs up on this video and share it with a friend who finds answers
to crazy questions like this fun and engaging.
I am your host Rebecca Felgate, I’ll catch you in the next video, but until then… do
stay curious, stay alert and never ever stop questioning!