P1_1 Resting On The Shoulders Of Giants

Abstract

This paper investigates the concept of a ’World Turtle’ as imagined in Terry Pratchett’s Diskworld series. The giant astronomical elephants which stand upon the turtle’s shell support the Diskworld. By assuming that the elephants have the same anatomy as terrestrial elephants, the dimensions of these animals is found. Each of the elephants would have to be 230km tall to be able to support the mass of the disk. It was also found that the size of the elephants to support a flat Earth would be 420km tall. A relationship between the radius of a disk and the height of the elephant was also found.