Donut-Shaped Planets - Sixty Symbols

Professor Tony Padilla on life on a "donut planet" - leading to discussion about how the Earth and Moon formed.
More links and info below ↓ ↓ ↓

Tony is a physicist at the University of Nottingham.

This project features scientists from The University of Nottingham


Sixty Symbols videos by Brady Haran
Animations in this video by Pete McPartlan

[juijani]

I like the fact that Prof Tony held that torus-shaped tube for the entire video.

[avalanchas]

"man I REALLY wanna play with my cool donut toy, but I'm a physics professor, hmm... How could I justify that?"

[CatzHoek]

I´m glad the Physics building has such a creative, yet memorable name. "Physics building". It really brings across the romantic elements of the subject and inspires students to think big. A masterpiece of creativity thought up by whoever came up with this unique name.

[ketsuekikumori]

I'd like to imagine the planet builders from Hitchhiker's Guide definitely made a toroidal planet on the whim of some ultra rich alien.

[terdragontra]

Torus shaped planets are the absolute coolest things ever. The widely varying surface gravity affecting local fauna and geography, the fact you could see the other side of the planet stretching above you majestically, and the other side of the planet occasionally eclipsing the sun. Its just awe inspiring!

[delusionnnnn]

This is every videogame world where you can wrap east to west and north to south. It's not quite as common today as it used to be, but it still happens. Ultima Online famously did this.

[mark]

So basically a planet of Werther's Originals is more likely to form than a planet of a Krispy Kreme doughnut?

[herrzog]

Gotta admit this is a way cooler origin story for the moon

[Kyanzes]

This synestia and the tectonic plates are very cool additions. Also the orbit animation for sure. Would be insane to find such a planet. Either a donut or a synestia.

[youtubehandlesareridiculous]

I love Sixty Symbols! One of my favorite things about Brady's videos is how he interacts with the experts and asks questions that the experts may not think of explaining for the general viewer. Keep up the great work!

[Oliisawesome]

the perfect "i don't need sleep i need answers" video

[hedlund]

I love how there's a Ghostbuster casually entering the physics dept. at 10:58.

[hindigente]

Earth: I used to think the Moon was a hot mess, but it grew on me and now it's pretty cool.

[OwenPrescott]

Wait for the Klein bottle dude to work out his new theory of Earths early formation

[jay_]

Donut Earthers have known this forever

[PopeLando]

I keep asking my pizza delivery place for "a 12" Synestia, please?" and they look at me weird. I have to give in and say "stuffed crust."

[MrSpanks]

As soon as this started, I was gonna close the page, but it was actually really interesting - thanks!

[Toastmaster_]

This was way more fascinating than I expected. I knew donut-shaped planets were a possibility and that they would have to spin to keep their shape, I never knew all the in-depth details of how it would function.

[COOLSerdash]

A Synestia looks a bit like a red blood cell.

[PeteFinn]

Awesome CGI! Very informative and entertaining, excellent work!