Is the earth really round?

[RogerM]

This might be the stupidest question ever, so dont flame me. Theoretically, if you had a string long enough and you started at a specific point..say the empire state building..and went around the world back to the original point.. Would the string be in the shape of a circle.. (Excluding the fact that you would be going around mountains,canyons etc..) My intuition says no.. Can someone please enlighten me. Thanks for your time in advance.

[daryn]

no, it bulges out in the middle, so you would have an elipse. even if we had no mountains or valleys, it would still have a bulge in the middle due to rotation

[CASINOCASINO]

it will take formation somewhat to a circle. Yes the earth is round.

[luckyme]

It would vary depending on the direction you align the string. ??

luckyme

[SWB]

[ QUOTE ]
no, it bulges out in the middle, so you would have an elipse.

[/ QUOTE ]

Technically true, but it'd be close enough to a circle that the difference would most likely be undetectable without pretty sophisticated measurements. Of course, the string's shape would also be deformed by wind, the earth's rotation, and people tripping over it (assuming it was made of some super-duper material that wouldn't just break).

[Philo]

[ QUOTE ]
This might be the stupidest question ever, so dont flame me. Theoretically, if you had a string long enough and you started at a specific point..say the empire state building..and went around the world back to the original point.. Would the string be in the shape of a circle.. (Excluding the fact that you would be going around mountains,canyons etc..) My intuition says no.. Can someone please enlighten me. Thanks for your time in advance.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah, finally I think I'm beginning to understand string theory.

[bocablkr]

I am curious - what shape DID you think the earth was?

[MrMon]

The polar circumference of the Earth differs from the equatorial circumference by 40 miles. (24860 vs. 24902). So it's not a circle, but an ellipse. A nearly circular ellipse, but an ellipse nonetheless.

[atrifix]

Actually, you'll get a geodesic. There's no such thing as a circle.

[Dominic]

does this answer your question?

http://www.solarviews.com/raw/earth/earthafr.jpg

[RogerM]

I was expecting for the string to be in the shape of a football... Just going around land.. Not including the atmosphere obviously..Not sure if I am explaining it correctly.. Basically I was expecting an acute ellipse.
Thanks for the replys

[theweatherman]

[ QUOTE ]
I was expecting for the string to be in the shape of a football... Just going around land.. Not including the atmosphere obviously..Not sure if I am explaining it correctly.. Basically I was expecting an acute ellipse.
Thanks for the replys

[/ QUOTE ]

Seriously? Have you never looked at the moon before?

Where would you ever get such an idea??

[madnak]

You have to admit a football-shaped planet would be pretty cool.

[malorum]

The earth is (roughly speaking) an oblate ellipsoid. i.e it bulges at the equator. any circle along a line of longditude (in parralell with the equator) would be (roughly speaking) a circle. any other slice would not be circular.

[MidGe]

With a bit more precise measurements the earth is slightly pear shaped (true).

[Siegmund]

It's going to depend exactly what path you take when you go 'around the world.'

They will all be pretty close to round. A circle along a line of longitude will be out by some tens of kilometers (wider across the equator) A "great circle" that only just barely comes far enough north to touch the latitude of the Empire State Building will be out by less than half as much.
A string the follows a line of latitude all the way around the earth (a "small circle") will be extremely close to perfectly circular - out by only a few tens of meters if memory serves. If you pull that one too taut, of course, you'll slide the whole thing northward until you shrink the circle down to a point.

[HLMencken]

[ QUOTE ]
The polar circumference of the Earth differs from the equatorial circumference by 40 miles. (24860 vs. 24902). So it's not a circle, but an ellipse. A nearly circular ellipse, but an ellipse nonetheless.

[/ QUOTE ]

... but close enough to be considered "round".

[HLMencken]

[ QUOTE ]
I was expecting for the string to be in the shape of a football...

[/ QUOTE ]

Ummmm.... why? Have you ever seen a football shaped planet or moon? Or ever seen a picture of the earth?

[GAL]

I haven't visited this forum much so I hope this isn't a reflection of the level of enlightenment I may find.

[HLMencken]

[ QUOTE ]
I haven't visited this forum much so I hope this isn't a reflection of the level of enlightenment I may find.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hate to burst your bubble. It's sad but true.

[DonkNitUP]

[ QUOTE ]
This might be the stupidest question ever, so dont flame me. Theoretically, if you had a string long enough and you started at a specific point..say the empire state building..and went around the world back to the original point.. Would the string be in the shape of a circle.. (Excluding the fact that you would be going around mountains,canyons etc..) My intuition says no.. Can someone please enlighten me. Thanks for your time in advance.

[/ QUOTE ]

The world is flat!! Dont believe me? Here check this guy out... Flat-world (http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/fe-scidi.htm) LMFAO

[RogerM]

When i say football shaped, I obviously did not mean it literally, I was trying to explain how I thought there would be a buldge in the middle. For those who answered the question with serious replys..Thank you. For those that are so insecure about their intelligence that they have to ridicule anyone that asks a question that seems trivial to them... Die. That is all.

[ShakeZula06]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This might be the stupidest question ever, so dont flame me. Theoretically, if you had a string long enough and you started at a specific point..say the empire state building..and went around the world back to the original point.. Would the string be in the shape of a circle.. (Excluding the fact that you would be going around mountains,canyons etc..) My intuition says no.. Can someone please enlighten me. Thanks for your time in advance.

[/ QUOTE ]

The world is flat!! Dont believe me? Here check this guy out... Flat-world (http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/fe-scidi.htm) LMFAO

[/ QUOTE ]

Damn, you beat me. I was going to provide this link-

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forums/

This is awesome for a few good laughs

[jman220]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This might be the stupidest question ever, so dont flame me. Theoretically, if you had a string long enough and you started at a specific point..say the empire state building..and went around the world back to the original point.. Would the string be in the shape of a circle.. (Excluding the fact that you would be going around mountains,canyons etc..) My intuition says no.. Can someone please enlighten me. Thanks for your time in advance.

[/ QUOTE ]

The world is flat!! Dont believe me? Here check this guy out... Flat-world (http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/fe-scidi.htm) LMFAO

[/ QUOTE ]

Damn, you beat me. I was going to provide this link-

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forums/

This is awesome for a few good laughs

[/ QUOTE ]

Does anyone else find it ironic that there are several threads discussing the speed of light, and it is the flat earthers on the site who have the theory correct (that the speed of light is constant and does not change based upon your frame of reference (Meaning if you shine a flashlight away from you while travelling at 100,000 mph, the light speed does not change from your frame of reference than if you were travelling at 0mph, nor does it appear different from your flashlight to a different observer travelling at a different speed)), and the "round earthers" who have it wrong, and are using a variable speed of light argument to try to disprove them?

[ShakeZula06]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This might be the stupidest question ever, so dont flame me. Theoretically, if you had a string long enough and you started at a specific point..say the empire state building..and went around the world back to the original point.. Would the string be in the shape of a circle.. (Excluding the fact that you would be going around mountains,canyons etc..) My intuition says no.. Can someone please enlighten me. Thanks for your time in advance.

[/ QUOTE ]

The world is flat!! Dont believe me? Here check this guy out... Flat-world (http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/fe-scidi.htm) LMFAO

[/ QUOTE ]

Damn, you beat me. I was going to provide this link-

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forums/

This is awesome for a few good laughs

[/ QUOTE ]

Does anyone else find it ironic that there are several threads discussing the speed of light, and it is the flat earthers on the site who have the theory correct (that the speed of light is constant and does not change based upon your frame of reference (Meaning if you shine a flashlight away from you while travelling at 100,000 mph, the light speed does not change from your frame of reference than if you were travelling at 0mph, nor does it appear different from your flashlight to a different observer travelling at a different speed)), and the "round earthers" who have it wrong, and are using a variable speed of light argument to try to disprove them?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well I don't know about all that but I remeber back a month or two when I found it (I think it was referenced in OOT or maybe here in SMP) I read a funny post about a flat earther (likely just trolling and pretending to be a flatearther) claiming that China does not exist.

Another one was that the earth is flat b/c particles will stay on a flat surface (ie, a table) but will not stay on sphere such as a ball or orange. Of course he didn't relize that that was because the particels were being pulled to the earth's surface, since the earth is much larger then the orange.

I think half of the flat-earthers are just doing it for the joke, probably college/highschool kids that have nothing else to do and have no job, and for some reason are good at bending the laws of physics t prove something inheritantly wrong (most the time

edit: wow if I wasn't half asleep I'd fix those spelling errors