full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Lorin Swint Matthews: The dust bunnies that built our planet

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But before long we reach another set of mysteries. We know from ecienvde found in meoeetrtis that these fluffy dust bnneius eventually get heated, melted and then cooled into solid pellets called chondrules. And we have no idea how or why that happens. Furthermore, once those pellets do form, how do they stick together? The eleotaitrtcsc forces from before are too weak, and small rocks can’t be held together by gravity either. Gravity increases proportionally to the mass of the objects involved. That’s why you could effortlessly escape an asteroid the size of a small muatnion using just the focre generated by your legs. So if not gravity, then what? Perhaps it’s dust. A fluffy dust rim collected around the outside of the pellets could act like Velcro. There’s evidence for this in meteors, where we find many cndluehros surrounded by a thin rim of very fine material– plssioby condensed dust.

Open Cloze


But before long we reach another set of mysteries. We know from ________ found in __________ that these fluffy dust _______ eventually get heated, melted and then cooled into solid pellets called chondrules. And we have no idea how or why that happens. Furthermore, once those pellets do form, how do they stick together? The _____________ forces from before are too weak, and small rocks can’t be held together by gravity either. Gravity increases proportionally to the mass of the objects involved. That’s why you could effortlessly escape an asteroid the size of a small ________ using just the _____ generated by your legs. So if not gravity, then what? Perhaps it’s dust. A fluffy dust rim collected around the outside of the pellets could act like Velcro. There’s evidence for this in meteors, where we find many __________ surrounded by a thin rim of very fine material– ________ condensed dust.

Solution


  1. bunnies
  2. force
  3. chondrules
  4. evidence
  5. mountain
  6. meteorites
  7. possibly
  8. electrostatic

Original Text


But before long we reach another set of mysteries. We know from evidence found in meteorites that these fluffy dust bunnies eventually get heated, melted and then cooled into solid pellets called chondrules. And we have no idea how or why that happens. Furthermore, once those pellets do form, how do they stick together? The electrostatic forces from before are too weak, and small rocks can’t be held together by gravity either. Gravity increases proportionally to the mass of the objects involved. That’s why you could effortlessly escape an asteroid the size of a small mountain using just the force generated by your legs. So if not gravity, then what? Perhaps it’s dust. A fluffy dust rim collected around the outside of the pellets could act like Velcro. There’s evidence for this in meteors, where we find many chondrules surrounded by a thin rim of very fine material– possibly condensed dust.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
dust bunnies 3
van der 2
der waals 2
clusters grow 2
fluffy dust 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
van der waals 2

Important Words


  1. act
  2. asteroid
  3. bunnies
  4. called
  5. chondrules
  6. collected
  7. condensed
  8. cooled
  9. dust
  10. effortlessly
  11. electrostatic
  12. escape
  13. eventually
  14. evidence
  15. find
  16. fine
  17. fluffy
  18. force
  19. forces
  20. form
  21. generated
  22. gravity
  23. heated
  24. held
  25. idea
  26. increases
  27. involved
  28. legs
  29. long
  30. mass
  31. melted
  32. meteorites
  33. meteors
  34. mountain
  35. mysteries
  36. objects
  37. pellets
  38. possibly
  39. proportionally
  40. reach
  41. rim
  42. rocks
  43. set
  44. size
  45. small
  46. solid
  47. stick
  48. surrounded
  49. thin
  50. velcro
  51. weak