Water and rocks

[Rockstar]

"Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: What is soft is strong."
-Lao-Tzu


In case anyone is near Delmarva and wondered where that smoke on the horizon was coming from. Its me thinking.

Why does water carve a rock? Its is a fluid made up of two Hydrogen molecules and one Oxygen molecule. It carries with it abrasives which scour away a rock. Also too when a certain amount of force (flow) of water alone is applied for a determined amount of time. It has enough energy to break loose and carry away mineral molecules that make up the rock.

If water has directed energy, water molecules will carry away steel molecules too. Nobody thinks gas as being hard either. But watch a meteor vaporize and scatter when it hits earth's atmosphere.

Seems to me rock is softer and more yielding than water or gas.

[Platapus]

Perhaps it is more a case of while a single drop of water won't do much, a very large number of drops will.

In flowing water, the water is, in effect, being constantly replaced while the rock remains static.

[Eichhörnchen]

And TIME is of course the important factor with water. Over millions of years it will do its work.

Look also at the steps worn away in an ancient monastery by those little sandals worn by the monks. they too were much softer than the sandstone steps, yet over the centuries those little buggas wore away the steps, slowly and imperceptibly. They had nothing much else to do, mind, apart from praying and making jam

[Skybird]

Its the same like with Skybird, and typos. The more time Skybird spends on correct typing, although it is just thought and by nature: immaterial, the more the ammount of visible black-on-white typos shrink, and dissapears. :yeah:

"shrink" with an "s" at the end, I mean. Third person singular, you know. :D

[Eichhörnchen]

And there's only one 'm' in amount :D

[Catfish]

^ thread needs more ammo

[Eichhörnchen]

Stoppit!