Sometime this past winter, I was in a snowball fight... and I had two left when we had to call it quits. As it happened, they were both spheres and one had exactly twice the diameter as the other.

I left the two on the ground, when we quit... and the weather started to get warmer. The snowballs started to melt. The melting only occurred at their surface, so the speed at which the balls melted was proportional to only the surface of the (remainder of the) snowballs.

How much (volume) was left of the small snowball when half the volume of the larger had melted?

Four radii: r1 strting radius of smaller ball, r2 ending radius of smaller ball, R1 starting radius of larger ball, R2 ending radius of larger ball.

R2 = cu.rt.(2)•R1 or
R1 = R2 / cu.rt.(2)

r1 = 1/2 R1

Now what would r2 be in relation to r1?

Posted by Erik O. on 2004-06-14 13:02:16