why is the earth round?

Question

why can it be square or rectangle?

Answer 1

the world is not, round it is an ellipsoid. lol. this is because of the shape of the orbit it travels around the sun and the gravitational pulls then shape it. it is flatter on the top and then round in th middle.

Answer 2

is the Earth round (planets and the sun, too)?


It's the gravity, of course.Imagine Earth were liquid--consisting, say, only of water. Gravity would of course pull that water towards the center, and if any could flow closer to the center, it would do so.Therefore, if such an Earth were not a sphere--if some points were higher than the average--their water would quickly flow down. Water would also flow into any valley deeper than the average and fill it up. The final shape MUST be a sphere. Only then does every point on the surface have the same distance from the center.

Answer 3

Someone is going to do a better job at this...but in a science class long, long ago we learned that the earth was round because of gravity and the earth's core...like the forces that are all puling on things are forming it into a sphere...
I don't know what forces or why or how...but I'm sure someone out there does and if not I will find the info...
have a nice day

Answer 4

Try throwing something that is square.
Then throw something rectangle shape.
Then throw a ball.
Which one has the best distance?
Which one look like it could travel the distance the easiest?
Then consider this.
The universe is moving and the earth and everything other thing out there with it.
So if these funny shaped asteroids and meteors are eventually taken out of their orbit and hit other planets like what happened to Jupiter a few years ago.
Would you be happy to know that your planet is round and travels easier threw space than an asteroid or meteor?

Answer 5

Just like bubbles underwater, the sphere is the shape with the least amount of volume to surface area... its the smallest 3D object possible. Over time, the gases in the solar system clustered together in "bubbles" of matter.
What's really a head scratcher is why all the planets lined up on a flat plane!!!

Answer 6

The first person who answered above is absolutely correct. I would like to add that the Earth is actually slightly elliptical in shape - it is not a perfect circle. The Earth spins around on its axis so fast that it bulges more around the equator. Think about attaching string to two ends of a water balloon. (Attaching the string to the "north pole" and "south pole" of the water balloon). Then, if you took the string and spun it around quickly, you would see how the water balloon bulges outwards near the "equator".

Answer 7

Gravitational forces love to create circles, because it is the easiest form for it to maintain. Look at blowing bubbles!

As the Earth changes shape, the equal gravitational force tends to pull it back into a sphere.

Answer 8

This
is due to gravity. Gravity pulls with equal strength in all
directions; therefore any variations from a spherical
shape will lead to gravitational forces that
bring the shape back into that of a sphere.

Answer 9

The earth is really not round. It's close but not round

Answer 10

Gravity keeps in a more egg shape than round. Besides if it were flat people would fall off of it all the time, water would float away into space, etc...

QED