If the earth is round why dosent the water of the earth just fall below space?

Question

Well this kid in my class loves to debate and goes agaist everything and he asked "if the earth is round why dosent all the water just fall and everything" and i couldent answer it but why

Answer 1

Gravity... the same thing that keeps him from falling off. Remind him he's about 70% water.

Or, you might tell him it's grivatrons. They're subatomic particles thrown off by the sun.. and all the stars in the universe. The Earth's gravity traps them. They from kind of a "skin" that holds everything down. Why not have some fun with him?

Tell him that gravitrons are the power source used by aliens to drive their spacecraft. Were it not for their understanding of gravitron propulsion, they couldn't travel such great distances at hundreds of thousands times the speed of light.

Oh, by the way... as far as I know, there are no such things as gravitrons... just made the word up. :-)

Answer 2

The water does fall. Has that kid in your class seen rain? That's water, falling.

A strong enough force of gravity will condense everything it can into something resembling a sphere. (Asteroids aren't spherical until they have a certain mass.) The force of gravity is pulling everything on the Earth toward the center--trying to compress the dirt, the water, even the air--into the smallest possible volume.

There is no "below space," or "above space" or anything like that--there's just the Earth, and everything that's affected by its gravity. (That's the neighborhood view. The Sun has stronger gravity than the Earth, of course, but it's pretty far away, and outside the topic of this particular question.) The Southern Hemisphere isn't "down," nor is the Northern Hemisphere "up." "Down" is toward the center of the Earth, and anything opposite that is "up," no matter where you are. There's no extra force pulling "down" in a direction other than what gravity is already trying to do. (There are extra forces pulling "up," though--the gravitational pulls from the Sun and the Moon affect the Earth's oceans, creating tides.)

So, the water did "just fall and everything." It ended up as close to the center of the Earth as it could get, blocked by streets, dirt, the bottom of the ocean, or anything more dense than water that happened to be in the way.

Answer 3

The Earth is a ball, a sphere, a globe. It is that shape because its own massive gravity pulls it into that shape so that everything on its surface is just about the same distance from the center – oceans, mountains, plains, you, me, the kitchen sink, are all pulled towards the center by gravity.

UP and DOWN do not apply in space. Up and down are merely related to the Earth pulling you towards its center.

Hey, tell your pal I live in New Zealand. By his reckoning I should be dropping off the world.

Do this for me. Show this question to your teacher:

TEACHER: what is wrong with the education system that kids in the 21st century – the space age – ask questions which show they have no idea of the form and shape of the world? Please see that children get basic space education in schools.

Answer 4

because the reason that things on earth fall down is that the earths gravity is pulling it towards the center. so all the oceans and everything else on earth is constantly being pulling towards the center. there is no gravity in space so the water would not fall from earth. the reason anything falls is gravity.

o, and to the guy above me. there actually is a particle called a graviton. but were not going to into that here. and why would you mislead an child trying to learn?

Answer 5

A mind that dense cannot be penetrated. You could show him the Australian coastline and he wouldn't get it. You could take him into high Earth orbit and he wouldn't get it. I'd suggest you nod in agreement, then conspiratorially mention that it's already started. Take him to the beach while the tide is going out. Show him some empty swimming pools. Tell him the water will all be gone in in a few years and that we'll have to get all our water out of vending machines. If he can't learn, at least he might do something entertaining.

Now, the fact that YOU don't know why, that concerns me. How can you imagine the Earth standing, unsupported in space, yet be unable to explain the concept of gravity?

Answer 6

The kid in your class needs to learn that there is nowhere for the water to fall. In space there is no "up" or "down".

The water stays on the surface of the Earth due to the gravity pulling all the water towards the Earth's centre.

Answer 7

I would just tell this guy that most people no longer believe that the earth is flat!

and don't worry about the water falling off--------- what about you and ME! ---------- never fear the Earth's gravity keeps everything in it's place as the Earth SPINS AROUND each day, and circles the Sun in it's yearly orbit, and moves with the solar system around the Milky Way Galaxy, and as the Galaxy moves through the Local Group of other nearby Galaxies.

Answer 8

because you can think of the earth's gravity originating from its core, equally in all directions....

"down" is toward the CENTER of earth,
NOT
toward the south pole.

this is also actually the reason why the planet it "almost" a perfect sphere......... (it spins really fast, so the edges tend to stretch outward, but not by much)


and space has no gravity, so water is not pulled OFF the planet.

Answer 9

if the said kid goes against every things, than I am sure he is suffering from severe inferiority complex. just do not bother such kids. if he is very much young then tell him that it is beyond his understanding and it will only be possible when he is grown up.

Answer 10

because gravity is keeping it up in space.