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From: williams@kirk.DEC (John Williams 223-3402)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Space mirrors
Message-ID: <1594@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Dec-85 16:51:12 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.1594
Posted: Wed Dec  4 16:51:12 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Dec-85 15:04:35 EST
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	Unfortunately, the analogy between aluminum sheet and soap
bubbles are invalid. Soap bubbles are formed from a liquid, and the reason
that they formed spheres is because of uniform surface tension.

	With aluminum, the strain would not be uniform, especially at the
edges, where some of the pressure is equallized from the support structure.
At low pressure, it would be safe to assume a fairly crystaline atomic
structure.

	My guess is that it would be closer to an ellipsoid.

						John