i keep on imagining the real appearance of the earth, inside and out.. what it looks like at the outerspace...and why it is round..? honestly i don't even have any i dea.... i like watching stars every night except if it rains of course,,but could you still see stars in the sky if it rains? it another question that i need to have an observation......
2007-01-26 13:57:35 · 18 answers · asked by alpha mae A 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
The Earth's shape is very close to an oblate spheroid, although the precise shape (the geoid) varies from this by up to 100 meters (327 ft).
The average diameter of the reference spheroid is approximately 12,742 km (more roughly, 40,000 km/π). The rotation of the Earth causes the equator to bulge out slightly so that the equatorial diameter is 43 km larger than the pole to pole diameter. The largest local deviations in the rocky surface of the Earth are Mount Everest (8,850 m above local sea level) and the Mariana Trench (10,924 m below local sea level).
Hence compared to a perfect ellipsoid, the Earth has a tolerance of about one part in about 584, or 0.17%.
For comparison, this is less than the 0.22% tolerance allowed in billiard balls. Because of the bulge, the feature farthest from the center of the Earth is actually Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.
2007-01-26 14:00:42 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
To a first-order approximation the Earth is round. 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.
This is without considering the rotation of the earth,
however. The rotation of the earth adds centrifugal
effects, which cause the earth to bulge slightly at
its equator and flatten slightly at its poles.
(This is like twirling a rock on the end of a string
and then letting go--the rock flies away from the
twirler.) Because of these centrifugal effects, the
distance from the center of the earth to the surface
of the earth is about 0.33% shorter at the poles
compared to the equator.
2007-01-26 22:18:09 · answer #2 · answered by amber g 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Was by no means a physics major, but I think it's because of gravity.
I believe the sphere is considered the "most efficient" 3D shape (most volume per surface area). Since gravity doesn't "prefer" any direction (force exerted equally in all 3D directions), an object's core/center of gravity would have an equal pull on the surrounding material. What is a geometric expression of this uniform pull around a single point? A sphere.
2007-01-26 22:07:44 · answer #3 · answered by joie_du_cor 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A sphere is the most efficient way to pack a volume so that surface to volume is the smallest possible. So...
Gravity tends to pull everything on earth towards the center. The lowest energy state is so that everything is the same distance from the center. That way there is no "downhill" or "uphill". The solid shape in which all the material is as equidistant from the center as possible is a sphere.
2007-01-26 22:01:21 · answer #4 · answered by Jerry P 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In the beginning, the Earth was a blob of sun matter and as this new blob began to orbit the sun, friction from every possible direction caused the earth to become round. Another factor was the spinning motion.
2007-01-26 22:44:32 · answer #5 · answered by Rick K 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gravity. The majority of space bound objects are round. The gravity of most objects pulls everything as close together as possible, hence a circular or round object.
2007-01-26 22:01:51 · answer #6 · answered by AirDevil 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
EARTH BEING ROUND
We know one thing that physics states that every body in this universe tends to have minimum energy state !.for this body must have minimum surface area like sphere .! our earth is oval which can roughly considered as sphere !. Now lets hav a look on how earth was formed .! as we all know that nebula gave rise to earth !. all the rotating mass of gases collected ,compressed and coagulated to form planets , moons and our big ol' pal ,sun.! earth had speed initialy when it was formed! . but due large gravitational force of sun it started revolving around sun ., ! earth 's inner core , which is very dense , also had its gravitational fielld attracting its crust .! to overcome the collapse due to this force eath started rotating movement around its own axis so that centripetal force balances gravitational force !. this rotatory motion also added stability to its spherical shape! if earth would have any other shape its moment of inertia woul be greater ( sphere has 0.4 which is minimum) than that of earth , and earth would be losing its its energy and finally dropped in the sun as electrons did in rutherford's model
while during rainy night we are unable to see stars because of cloud and its associated actvities .Colur of cloud and their inhibiting behaviour of light by particles in it causes their disappearnce in raining night.STARS are far away from us so when their reflected light reaches our atmosphere ,they are weak and when it rains ,unable to reach us.
2007-01-27 04:03:18 · answer #7 · answered by rajeev_iit2 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Even if it was a triangle or square in the beginning, it would wear down to a sphere. But I think it was supposedly formed from a BALL of gasses. And actually, due to its orbit being elliptical around the sun it is slightly ovoid.
2007-01-26 22:07:46 · answer #8 · answered by dittywah2003 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Gravity attracts all particles with the same acceleration. All particles are attracted toward the center of the object. Since all particles are attracted at the same rate toward the center, they will form a sphere, which is the shape with the same radius no matter where you measure it.
2007-01-26 22:04:16 · answer #9 · answered by physandchemteach 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Because in planet making, the gravity brings in matter from all the way around
2007-01-26 22:21:19 · answer #10 · answered by rock_man 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋