Please explain environmental effects of your answer.
2006-09-10 18:14:33 · 4 answers · asked by s g 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
It has to be pretty close to spherical (you probably know it bulges in the middle so it's a little squashed looking already).
This is just due to physics. When something is very large it's gravity is so great that it all colapses towards the center, forming a ball (this is a perimeter for a planet in the new definition in fact).
Someone suggested a long time ago on here that a planet might be flat with walls, like a shoebox bottom. Not only would this collapse but even if it avoided this it wouldn't hold an atmosphere without a strong center of mass/gravity. Not to mention that the tectonic activity which our planet needs to maintain life as we know it would cease without a core and thick magma layer. Also without a core we would have no magnetic field and would be killed eventually by radiation.
2006-09-10 18:22:53 · answer #1 · answered by iMi 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As it has been stated, the earth is not a perfect sphere, but a sphereoid. It bulges along the equator due to the centrifugal effect caused by the earth's rotation, but that is a discussion for another time.
The primary environemental effect is that you will weigh slightly less at the equator than you do at the poles. Additionally, the same action that causes the bulge, the rotation of the earth, also causes something called the Coreolis Effect, which is a major player in weather systems and oceanic currents.
2006-09-11 08:23:11 · answer #2 · answered by sparc77 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We probably wouldn't be called a planet anymore. the non spherical shape would mess up our orbit and probably cause mass extinction on earth
2006-09-15 20:11:35 · answer #3 · answered by $$$ 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the earth is not spherical. it's an oblate spheroid.
2006-09-11 01:19:38 · answer #4 · answered by ugen624 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋