Physicists often simplify or idealize phenomena to make them more amenable to an initial mathematical treatment. We jokingly refer to this as considering a "spherical cow". Sometimes one can understand even very subtle phenomena using this technique. However, there are always important effects that one needs the full, non-symmetric nature of the situation to understand. Here, from The Telegraph, is an example of experimental data illustrating just this point (emphasis mine)!
Dr Sabine Begall and colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen looked at thousands of images of cattle on Google Earth in Britain, Ireland, India and the USA. They also studied 3,000 deer in the Czech Republic. The deer tended to face north when resting or grazing. Although, in many cases, the images were not clear enough to determine which way the cattle were facing they were aligned on a north/south axis. The scientists concluded that they were behaving in ...
