[xg15]

Got a bit frustrated because I couldn't get anything except a flat surface above the water, then read the tweets below and realised that's the entire point:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1362557149147058178.html

(Many thanks to Elon for making it impossible to read more than the first tweet on x.com without an account...)

[ajb]

Here's a non-flat one:

https://imgur.com/a/7KANxOn

Very unlikely to occur in nature I guess :-)

[xanderlewis]

https://ibb.co/ZLYxr4x

Sometimes to innovate you have to think like a child — or a teenager.

[rvnx]

Make sure to patent it before they use this as base design for the Cybertruck^2

[isoprophlex]

Nice tip on that iceberg

[barfbagginus]

I was about to post something similar. But you nailed it before I could swing my own hammer, to use a figure of speech.

[barfbagginus]

I was about to post something similar. But you nailed it before I could swing my own hammer, to use a figure of speech.

[manwe150]

That works, but my personal favorite is drawing something like 2 half notes, connected, since a bridge shape seems to maximize the height*width of iceberg visible above the water. There is nothing to stop you from just adding a wide flat plane to the top of your spike either though to add more flair!

[HarHarVeryFunny]

My mental model is of each side (think left/right in 2-D) of the iceberg competing with the other side to float to the surface by rotating the iceberg around it's center of gravity. The only stable positions are where these left/right rotational forces are balanced.

If an iceberg is currently floating in a vertical orientation where more of it's mass to one side of it's center of gravity (bottom half) is underwater compared to the mass on the other side (top half), then it's going to tend to rotate until both sides are equally above water, so (depending on mass distribution) horizontal orientations are likely to win over vertical ones.

Of course an iceberg could balance vertically, but that's like balancing a pencil on your finger - not the most stable, and any disturbance (such as the initial calving event) is likely to rotate it into a more stable horizontal orientation.

[Sharlin]

That’s exactly it. An iceberg can’t stay "vertical" for the exact same reason that a pencil can’t stay vertical. Even if perfectly balanced, the equilibrium is unstable.

[kazinator]

https://i.imgur.com/ixBkSsV.png

[JadeNB]

> (Many thanks to Elon for making it impossible to read more than the first tweet on x.com without an account...)

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1362557149147058178.html

[WhitneyLand]

Try something that has no flat surfaces. For example a five pointed star.

[RobertRoberts]

I drew an equilateral triangle and it floats flat on top.

[furyofantares]

Hexagons work