Question

is the world flat or round?

Answers

bobpursley
Neither. It is an oblate spheroid. Look that up.
Romwe
? i thought it was round
Romwe
also... is NASA lying to us? they put pics up of earth perfect round shape.
Ms. Sue
https://www.popsci.com/10-ways-you-can-prove-earth-is-round
bobpursley
You haven't looked the term up yet. Without knowing, you will grow up ignorant.
Romwe
An oblate spheroid is a surface of revolution obtained by rotating an ellipse about its minor axis
bobpursley
excellent. That is what Earth is.
Romwe
i just want to know if NASA is lying to us....
bobpursley
Since the Earth is flattened at the poles and bulges at the equator, geodesy represents the shape of the Earth with an oblate spheroid. The oblate spheroid, or oblate ellipsoid, is an ellipsoid of revolution obtained by rotating an ellipse about its shorter axis.

I would consider NASA a reliable source on the shape of the Earth, since they have to launch satellites around it.
Romwe
Why is there no stars in the photos?
bobpursley
When one takes a photo of Earth from space, the light from the Earth is usually so great of magnitude, the faint light from the stars is supressed. Same issue when you look for stars in daylight.
Scott
this is from google

A rotating body tends to form an oblate spheroid rather than a sphere. The Earth has an equatorial bulge of 42.77 km (26.58 mi); that is, its diameter measured across the equatorial plane (12,756.27 km (7,926.38 mi)) is 42.77 km more than that measured between the poles (12,713.56 km (7,899.84 mi)).


as you can see , the Earth is only slightly "out of round"

about 40 km in 12700 km ... 0.3%

that's why it looks round from space

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