The Thermodynamics of Monopoly

“Imagine that the cow is a sphere.”

This is the punch line to an old Physics Professor's joke. I could repeat the setup, but it isn't funny enough to warrant the effort. The punch line on its own is sufficient to reveal the absurdity of how physicists view the world. They do it for good reason. Physicists need to paint the world with big fat brushes so that the large concepts they consider don’t get lost in the minutia. Having the cow shaped as a rectangle would likely work, but having it shaped as a cow makes for some serious topological challenges when you’re writing a proof. Though absurd, round cows are useful when you’re paid to figure out answers to very big questions.