this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
1377 points (98.9% liked)
Memes
45726 readers
922 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
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.