[Guest]

A group of four snakes are all very hungry. The first snake latches on to the second snake's tail, the second snake does the same to the third, and the third bites the fourth snakes tail. Then, the fourth snake turns around and begins munching on the first snakes tail. All four snakes are now in a circle, all eating eachother. The circle gets smaller and smaller as the snakes continue to eat eachother.

Eventually, what will happen to the snakes?

[Guest]

They will choke and die... They cannot completely eat each other because their stomach will not contain that much moreover every object on earth has to follow pauli's exclusion principle

[Guest]

I do not agree with Storm... i have seen photos and videos on NGC and everywhere that can proove that a snake can eat much more that it can fit in its mouth ...

It all depends on the lengths of the snakes... if all of them are of the same size .. after some time their own tail is thier mouth.. hence they will all give up ..

[bonanova]

Each will have an increasing number of tails, from 1 to 4 [its own] inside its body.

They will nest into each other, shrinking the perimeter of their death circle until its curvature prevents further collapse.

It's not fundamentally different from the situation of a singly snake eating itself, which may be easier to visualize.

Interestingly, each snake only digests its nearest neighbor, permitting all four to be amply nourished.

Storm:

Pauli's exclusion principle? Pauli was a snake?

The Turtle Girl:

Answer: the same as the number of shepherds it takes to make a shepherd's pie.

[Guest]

Pauli's exclusion principle? Pauli was a snake?

The Turtle Girl:

Answer: the same as the number of shepherds it takes to make a shepherd's pie.

Each will have an increasing number of tails, from 1 to 4 [its own] inside its body.

They will nest into each other, shrinking the perimeter of their death circle until its curvature prevents further collapse.

It's not fundamentally different from the situation of a singly snake eating itself, which may be easier to visualize.

Interestingly, each snake only digests its nearest neighbor, permitting all four to be amply nourished.

Storm:

Pauli's exclusion principle: two physical objects can not be in a same place at the same time.

My variation: If one snake eat another of same length (without letting it digested), then it should take twice the space than the original one...now if the size remains same...then it must be the prey, then where is the predator?? ....I think i made it complicated enough

[roolstar]

I guess that's why snakes start swallowing their preys HEAD FIRST then...

[Guest]

After reaching a point where their body circumferences will no longer permit the circle to close, they would probably die of thirst, if not found by Ripleys first

[Guest]

I guess that's why snakes start swallowing their preys HEAD FIRST then...

My snake didn't always start swallowing the head first... And it could *definitely* swallow something with a greater diameter than its (normal) self.

I thought Pauli's Exclusion Principle applied to states of Leptons (eg electrons).

I agree that it is comparable to a snake eating its own tail. In addition to being limited to the curvature of the hoop they make, they would also be constrained by the diameter of the body. To make the math easier, lets assume it's one snake eating its own tail. Let's say the length of the snake is L. When the snake first starts eating itself, the circumference of the hoop is L and the diameter of the snake is starting to double. When the circumference drops to L/2 the snake will start eating the part of itself that has its tail in it. (This assumes that the snakes stomach is as long as the snake which is false but mathematically expedient.) At this point the diameter is starting to triple. When the circumference drops to L/3 the snake will start eating its tail again and its diameter will start to quadruple. Now I've fed my 9ft long, 3 inch diameter snake a 6 inch diameter chicken and it would give him a bit of a problem. Even being generous and assuming that a snake can eat something 3 times their normal diameter, the radius of the hoop (assume pi = 3) would be ~6 inches ((9ft/3)/(2pi))and the radius of the snake would be 4.5 inches.