Swamped

Sally flips through the notes.

"Well, here's something that might be useful. After noticing what you did about the shape, Dominique checked for the center of gravity. Um, hold on, this is mostly equations, and she didn't write a very clear summary, let me see what I can put together..."

Sally looks closely at the notes and then looks up, seeming very confused.

"Well, as best as I can tell, she found two different locations for the center of gravity using two separate methods that are supposed to yield the same result."

"That sounds like it's a bit over my head," you say. "What exactly does that mean?"

"It means magic's involved," Ember says calmly. "Never was very good at science, but I do know that much. If the numbers don't make sense, and you've checked to make sure they're right, then magic is the thing throwing them off."

"Right, now that I read this summary again, I think Dominique's hypothesizing that the second center is actually an ethereal anomaly with an impact on gravity."

You're more or less blanking out on that explanation, so you opt to bring it back to the part you vaguely understand.

"Okay, but what's that got to do with why the sphere is flat?"

"Well, the shape would impact the physical center of gravity," Ember muses. "That's the only connection I can see."

You think about this.

"This is just a guess because I don't know much about this stuff, but could it be the second center is where it would be if the object was a perfect sphere?"

Sally flips back a few pages in the book and looks thoughtful.

"I think he's right," she says after a few minutes. "No idea on what that means, though."

Well, maybe you can think of something.