a simple explanation of why the earth is round?

Answer 1

Simple answer. Its the same as when you blow soap bubbles they are round because its the easiest shape to achieve. No angles. Gravity pulls equaly in all directions so anything sticking up would be pulled in to equalize the diffrence in gravity.
Additional information the earth isnt round the earths spin causes the equator to bugle out. Try this link.

Answer 2

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.

Gas planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune behave the same
way, since gas flows like a fluid. The Sun is gas, too, so it must be
spherical. But Earth? The Moon? Why should a planet composed of solid
rock have the same shape as one composed of water?

Because, dear friend, once you descend a few hundred miles (or
kilometers), rocks flow like a fluid, too. A rock 300 miles underground
bears the weight of a 300-mile layer of rock, and under such pressure
even solid material will gradually yield, more so because of the intense
heat there. Hence the rocky Earth is close to a sphere.

Mountains may stick up 30000 feet, but not much more, otherwise the
ground will slowly sink under their weight. Olympus Mons on Mars can
reach 80000, but the weaker gravity of Mars makes it possible. Asteroids
100 miles across may still be potato-shaped (not enough gravity to give
the outer layers enough weight), but by the time you reach 300 miles,
round is the rule.

Round ... but not always completely round. Earth bulges a little at
the equator, because rotation flings matter outwards, weakening gravity
there by a fraction of 1%. Jupiter spins faster than Earth--just under
10 hours--and bulges much more: telescope pictures of Jupiter show it
visibly fatter at the equator. And our Moon--why do you think it always
presents the same face to the Earth? Yes, it is lightly longer in that
direction, and the pull on the part sticking out towards Earth keeps it
aligned that way.

Answer 3

No Its Not Gravity, Gravity Plays A Tiny Bit Of The Puzzle, Electromagnatism, Light And Spinning Millions Of Years Round The Sun, Which Is The Centre Weight, Creating All The Planets To Revovle Round The Sun - Kind Of Like A Roulette Wheel

Over Time The Combonation Of Ice, Magma And Dust Have Moulded It Into A Spere

Speed, Rotation, Time

Answer 4

For the same reason that a water droplet in space is spherical; it maximises the volume while minimising the surface tension. The earth's own gravity stops it spinning of into space in all directions as it spins about it's own axis; the matter that makes up the earth is drawn to it's centre, the heaviest towards the core. The radial load is balanced by the mass distributing itself circumferentially. In engineering, it's called the principle of least work.

Answer 5

A circle is not a sphere. The Greeks figured out that the Earth was a sphere about 2500 years ago. They even had a pretty good idea how big it was.

Answer 6

Not only Earth, all the planets r more or less round. Their speed of revolution, centripetal force & centrifugal force(pseudo) r responsible 4 that.

Answer 7

It has sufficient mass to over come solid body forces and achieve hydrostatic equilibrium.

Sorry, that was a far too brief explanation - check this link out, for more details;

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=19

Answer 8

The surface tension of a hot liquid in space which cools, if unaffected by other bodies, would be round...

Answer 9

You must remember that the Earth was a molten planet billions of years ago.

Answer 10

the earth was created by space dust which slowly gathered together because of gravity as its all being sucked into one point it makes the planet perfectly round something like that took billions of years.the answer GRAVITY.