I Perfect Spheres: A Theoretical Possibility or an Impossibility?

[kolleamm]

I've been wondering about this for a while. If you were to take a perfect sphere and cut it in half so that you would see a circle and then use a magnifying glass to zoom in closer and closer on part of the circle, the arc would approach near flatness but it would never reach it so therefore since an arc is constantly changing it cannot be fully defined therefore perfect spheres cannot exist in the real world. What do you think?

 

[houlahound]

Agree.

World's Roundest Object!:

 

[Drakkith]

If you were to take a perfect sphere and cut it in half so that you would see a circle and then use a magnifying glass to zoom in closer and closer on part of the circle, the arc would approach near flatness but it would never reach it so therefore since an arc is constantly changing it cannot be fully defined therefore perfect spheres cannot exist in the real world. What do you think?

That is incorrect. The arc of a circle is easily "defined" using several different equations. A perfect sphere cannot exist in real life mainly because matter is made up of atoms, which put a limit on how smooth and accurate the surface can be. It will never be perfectly round.

 

[kolleamm]

Thanks everyone for the replies