Monday, February 13, 2012

The Proximity of Two Spheres.

Last night, my teenage daughter proclaimed that I have a "butt chin nose".  I had heard the unfortunate phrase "butt chin" before, used to refer to chins with dimples in the center, formed by a bifurcated jaw tip.  My daughter meant that my nose was similarly formed of flesh over bifurcated cartilege, thus producing a visible cleft between the two approximately spherical surfaces at the point of my nose.  After feeling my nose and admitting that she was right, my first statement was,
"Why 'butt chin nose'?  Why not cut out the middleman and just call it a butt nose?"
But that didn't make it sound a whole lot better.  I began thinking about that kind of shape, and it wasn't long before I realized that it is quite common.  In fact, right now this very minute, you, dear reader, are breathing butt oxygen!

Exhibit A:






I thought some more.  I thought of other shapes I had seen that consist in essence of two overlapping spheres, or else two spheres in close proximity.  I made a mental list.  The creation of such a mental list is left as an exercise to the reader.

However I will say, from over fifty years of observing God's creation, that our Creator has a certain fondness for the idea of two spheres in close proximity.