What do you think our world would be like if it was cubical?

Question

Our world is a sphere.
But, what if the explorers back then were right?
What if our world were cubical?
How do you think would it affect the climate, the animals, nature...

What's your opinion?

Answer 1

First of all, there is no reasonable material that you could use to construct an earth-sized planet that could withstand its own gravity and remain a cube. However, if somehow you COULD form a cubical planet, it would be an odd creature indeed. The edges of the cube would essentailly be extremely high mountain ridges, the faces of the cube very deep valleys. If the cube occupied the same volume as the earth, the edges of the cube would be about 7 million feet (1300 miles) "higher" than the center, a very large mountain indeed.

Any atmosphere held by the planet would collect on the faces (in the valleys) and the edges would be rarefied if not space-like vacuum. Likewise, water (oceans) would collect at the centers of the faces on the cube.

Depending on the orientation of the cube to the sun, the top and bottom (north and south) surfaces would have vast areas in continual light or continual darkness.

Assuming life somehow came to exist on such a planet, you would have 6 completely isolated ecosystems - one on each face. There would be no exchange of any sort between the faces - everything would be concentrated at the center of the face, with no possibility of surmounting the 7 million foot high mountain ridge. Climate as we know it would be impossible - there would be no global circulation of any kind, atmosphere or water.

It would be a bizarre place indeed.