Dichter op de Huid - O dubbel d
Dichter op de Huid - O dubbel d
Dichter op de Huid - O dubbel d
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On the skin<br />
The physics of the surface<br />
The snake that cannot shed its skin perishes. So do the spirits who<br />
are prevented from changing their <strong>op</strong>inions; they cease to be spirits<br />
Friedrich Nietzsche<br />
Surface area is one si<strong>de</strong> times the other si<strong>de</strong> –<br />
for a square or a rectangle. For a triangle, the<br />
surface area is half the base times the height.<br />
For a circle, the surface area is pi times the<br />
radius (half the diameter) squared. The surface<br />
conceals and betrays. Even though it may be<br />
an abstract, meaningless, formless sheet, the<br />
surface <strong>de</strong>termines the content. The relation of<br />
the surface area to the volume which it conceals<br />
can even be – as we will see later – a matter of life and <strong>de</strong>ath.<br />
The relation between the surface area and the volume has<br />
a huge impact on the biological life quality of an organism, or on the<br />
nature of matter. If you consi<strong>de</strong>r that the surface area of a cube has<br />
become six times the si<strong>de</strong> times the si<strong>de</strong> instead of one si<strong>de</strong> times<br />
the si<strong>de</strong>, or in the case of a circle, four pi times the radius squared,<br />
something essential has changed between the surface area and the<br />
volume. However, does the volume say anything about the content?<br />
Or is it in fact the content that is provi<strong>de</strong>d meaning by the surface<br />
area?<br />
If the diameter of a round single-celled organism, or a<br />
molecule, increases in relation to its content, eventually it has less<br />
surface area available on the outsi<strong>de</strong>. The ratio of surface area to<br />
volume has changed. An increase in the ratio of surface to volume<br />
has advantages and disadvantages, which affects <strong>de</strong>ad as well as living<br />
matter.<br />
About / On / IN / Un<strong>de</strong>r thE skin<br />
Essay The physics of the surface<br />
If you span the skin of a donkey over a piss pot<br />
you shall have a drum<br />
Gustave Flaubert<br />
The surface draws a vacuum around the volume as the skin does<br />
around the bones of a dying body. The surface spreads, as the si<strong>de</strong>s<br />
stretched over our thighs. The surface entices a reaction, agreeable<br />
or disagreeable. The surface is the misleading betrayer of the<br />
content. But then again it is not.<br />
The surface of the molecules of which the matter is built<br />
Skin Deep / <strong>Dichter</strong> <strong>op</strong> <strong>de</strong> huid<br />
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