Shape of the Earth: The Oblate Spheroid
What is the shape of the Earth?
“Earth is not a perfect sphere. Its shape is an oblate spheroid. This just means that it flattens at the poles and widens out at the equator.”
Earth bulges at the equator because of the centrifugal force during rotation.
Like spinning a pizza, the mass pushes outwards and flattens out along the axis of rotation.
Earth radius as a datum
Geographers model Earth’s shape as an ellipsoid, which is a sphere slightly flattened at the poles. They use a datum to reference geographic coordinates on Earth.
A datum describes the shape of the Earth in mathematical terms. It defines the radius, inverse flattening, semi-major axis, and semi-minor axis for an ellipsoid.
For example, the WGS84 datum identifies the longest diameter of an ellipse (semi-major axis) as 6,378,137.0 m. Next, the semi-minor axis is 6,356,752.3 m.
So, this aligns well with the radius of Earth at the equator as 6,378 km. Finally, the squashing at the poles is slightly less at about 6,357 km.
Why Mount Chimborazo is higher than Mount Everest
If you stand at mean sea level at the equator, you would be 21.4 km farther away from the center of Earth compared to standing at the north and south pole.
This is because the equator bulges and forms an oblate spheroid. So if you measure from the center point of Earth outwards, Mount Chimborazo is the highest point on Earth because of the equator bulge height advantage.
But if you compared height above mean sea level, then Mount Everest is the tallest mountain. While Mount Chimborazo has a peak elevation of 6,263 m, Mount Everest towers at 8,848 m tall.
Shape of the Earth: The Oblate Spheroid
The shape of the Earth is an oblate spheroid, meaning that its two bulges are slightly different sizes when you compare the equator to the poles.
Do you want to learn more about the Earth and other concepts of Earth Science? If so, there are a lot of career opportunities available as well. These online courses can help.
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It’s very simple notes that any student can understand.
Benjamin,
None of the photos show a perfect sphere. You are plain wrong to make such an assertion, simply because of your intuition.
As explained by others, above, the difference is so tiny it is not discernible to the naked eye, especially when other shapes, cloud formations and lighting conditions are involved.
William Sterling, centrifugal force has a very low effect on gravitational force. Imagine being on one of those old playground merry-go-rounds. If that thing was spinning 1000 miles per hour it would sling everything on it off without problem. Going just a few miles per hour it would do it as well by the way! So the reason we are not slung off the Earth is due to gravity. Gravity has to do with the Mass of the Earth and not the spin of the Earth. The Mass of the Earth is so large it holds you and everything else down. To the Earth your body mass is not even like a speck of dust.
In order to have a “perfect sphere” the picture would need a low enough resolution to shave off mountains and fill valleys. So every. Single. Damn. Photo. Is an approximation at best.
Ben, are you the one making the claim the picture you are looking at show a 100% perfect sphere, or is someone els making that claim? If your making the claim then your only arguing with your self, which is where the logic should start. How about you walk the earth your self to prove your self right, this way you can reassure your self that your the genius we’ve all been waiting for. In order to be great you have to prove your findings otherwise your just a talker . Get a laser.. you can figure the rest out. And if it’s flat, what do we do next?
I would like to add that the reason it takes me almost as long to fly from Italy to Toronto as it does to fly to Vancouver, clear across the continent, is because the earth is an oblate spheroid shape, and when they fly directly to Vancouver they take the ARCTIC route, and since the earth is flatter up there it’s less distance than it would be if it bulged out the same amount as it does further south. If I have to fly to Toronto first, this adds 6 -7 hours of flying.
This question highlights the issue of the claim of the oblate shape of the Earth; Why do objects on the Earth’s surface weigh the same at the Poles (where there is NO centrifugal force) as they do at the Equator (where centrifugal force of rotation is at its maximum)? If there IS no difference, how can any scientific experiment or conclusion on the surface of the Earth concerning weight be reconciled? How can Earth’s rotation be proven using gravity as a factor without centrifugal force?
There’s only a 0.3% difference. as BD said, do you REALLY think you’ll notice that?
There’s only a 0.3% difference.. Of course you won’t see that difference in a picture.
If the earth had a radius of 10cm at the poles it would have a radius of 10,03cm at the equator. That’s a 0.3mm increase, you would not notice that difference unless you measured it with precision tools.
Let’s look at another analogy. If you have one dude that’s 175cm tall and another that’s 0.3% taller he would only be 175.5cm tall. Would you be able to tell which one of them were taller in a picture? No, you would not.
But Every. Single. Damn. Photo. taken from space by astronauts shows a perfectly spherical Earth. Every single one. Those photos are not faked as flat earthers like to say – they are real. The oblate Earth theory is therefore known to be false.