[VA] SRC #011 - April 1st, 2022 Bizarro Special

[Valentin Albillo]

(04-02-2022 08:31 PM)ijabbott Wrote:  

(04-02-2022 09:32 AM)J-F Garnier Wrote:  As a very crude and ugly approximation, we can put all the mass at the center of each cube, and calculate the force F = Mm/D², M=m=D=1 so F=1.

TBH, I don't get why that is not the correct answer!

Because a cube doesn't have spherical symmetry. cf. Wikipedia:

"[...] an object with a spherically symmetric distribution of mass exerts the same gravitational attraction on external bodies as if all the object's mass were concentrated at a point at its center. (This is not generally true for non-spherically-symmetrical bodies.)"

V.