- #71
DaveC426913
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I'm trying to visualize the axial rotation.stefan r said:I looked at that picture. A cigar 10 cm by 1 cm by 1cm would be at the peak when the long axis is perpendicular to the sun. 10x luminosity because 10x surface. A cookie with a face surface area 10x the edge surface area (3.2 x 3.2x1, or 5 x 2 x1) would have the same peak and trough.
I think a cookie shape would require more "lucky" fine-tuning than a spindle. The spindle is symmetrical about its long axis, so it only needs one axis to align every 8 hours in order to reflect sunlight toward Earth. A cookie-shape would need to be aligned on two axes to reflect properly. While it doesn't rule it out, it essentially means the cookie's chance is the square root of the spindle's.
I think.