Monday, May 4, 2009

Drama-rama in the Middle East

Humans like to fight- often with each other. This statement may be vastly over-generalizing things, but looking at the past few thousand years or so of recorded history, it is hard to disagree. Oil, one of the most valuable natural resources since the invention of the automobile, is a large source of strife- especially in the Middle East. Because the distribution of oil in the Middle East is so uneven, the wealth is therefore also distributed unevenly. What compounds the uneven distribution of wealth even further is the fact that very few people own the companies that own the wealth. What you get is a high concentration of money in one place, and no more money left elsewhere.

Part of the reason that oil is so unevenly distributed is gravity; Yes, I said "gravity". Gravity is the force exerted by masses that pulls other masses towards the object's center of mass (in case you didn't know. Teehee.) You might notice that the largest areas of oil reserves lie in valleys, nestled on many sides by large mountain ranges. Oil, being a liquid, seeks the lowest elevation possible, and will therefore flow into the ground at the base of valleys. Water (also a liquid) also seeks the lowest elevations possible, and this means that oil and water will often be found near each other (because they have both sought the areas of lowest elevation). Notice that the more mountainous countries in the Middle East such as Afghanistan have very little amounts of oil.

Everything goes back to physics. Yay physics.
Yes, you can blame the world's conflicts on physics.

1 comment:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete