this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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So you’re saying the earth is a very smooth ball bearing. This despite being classified as an oblate spheroid.
I'm guessing smoothness doesn't consider the non-spherical shape of the planet, just the bumpiness of it. But I'm also some random on the Internet, so who knows
I think I’m missing what the smoothness of the planet has to do with it being basically an iron-nickel ball covered by a bit of rock, but being a meat popsicle, I tend to miss a lot of things.
I missed all of this, but you all seem swell!
You as well, friend!
The difference in diameter between the pole and the equator is only about 26 miles.
7926 miles vs 7900 miles
So a difference of about 0.03%
Yeah I'd say that's pretty spherical
Edit: Rereading this it comes of a bit rougher than I intended. Basically what I'm saying is something can be spherical without being a perfect sphere, infact if to be a sphere (in common usage of the word) only applied to perfect examples of a sphere than nothing would be a sphere. Definitions are pretty wishy-washy a lot of the times, especially when it comes to describing the world as it is.
Earth is an oblique spheroid, technically. But calling it a sphere is true enough to observers that I'd say it still counts.