Is the earth a circle or a square?

Question

I'm really not sure because whenever I ask people make fun of me and say i'm dumb!!! And if its a circle then how come we don't fall off? I am just very confused will someone please help

Answer 1

Don't worry your not stupid... these people probably just don't know the answer to your question.

The Earth is spherical... not perfectly spherical, but spherical none the less. Because Earth is so massive, it has something called "gravity". Gravity is a pulling force created by matter. The more matter, the greater the force. Earth's mass is so great that we are attracted to it. When you jump, you automatically fall down. Earth's gravity is the force pulling you down. We don't fall off because this gravity is holding us down.

Answer 2

O_o

Actually it's a near-perfect sphere...

How old are you?

Answer 3

circle specifically a sphere  

Answer 4

The Earth is circular (..actually a sphere..) and we don't fall off because of gravity.

Answer 5

It's a sphere.  We don't float away or fall off because of gravity.

Answer 6

It's on oblate spheroid (look it up).  We don't fall off because of gravity.

Answer 7

It is a sphere and we don't fall off because of a little thing called gravity. By the way if you would not like to be laughed at because you don't know something you could quickly type in what shape is the earth into any search engine and get your answer.

Answer 8

Gravity makes the earth and other planets, stars, large asteroids, etc into a spherical shape, and it also holds us down to the surface, remember "down" is always toward the center of the earth, so falling "off" is not possible.

Answer 9

The earth is a sphere we dont fall off because of gravity  

Answer 10

Doofus.  It's flat.

Answer 11

Neither. Circles and squares are two-dimensional figures.

The Earth is almost a sphere, with the distance from North to South pole somewhat smaller then between two points of the equator.

We don't fall of because of a force called gravity: drop your pen and it falls  down in the direction of the center. But the same is true in France, China or the South Pole.

Answer 12

A 3D circle or sphere

Answer 13

The Earth is NOT a sphere.  It is an oblate spheroid with a polar radius of 6,356.8 km, and an equatorial radius of 6,378.1 km.  This gives Earth a flattening of 0.0033528.  

Gravitational force keeps us from "floating away".  Incidentally, due to the Earth's smaller polar radius, you actually would weigh more at the poles than at the equator (though the effect would be too small to notice).

Answer 14

It's not a circle, it's a sphere. And it's not a square. We don't fall off because of gravity, which stick us on the surface so much that we can't even jump up 10 feet.

Answer 15

The Earth is a sphere.

Answer 16

Although strictly speaking the earth is an oblate spheroid, it is indistinguishable visually from a sphere.    Fundamentalist Christians should be annoyed by this fact since the phrase "four corners of the earth" appears several places in the bible.  No sphere ever had corners.  But even Biblical literalists ignore those inconvenient pieces of scripture.

   You don't fall off because of gravity.  Not even the Australians.  There are no privileged positions in space.  Australians are NOT upside down.  The definition of UP is ANY direction away from the center of the earth.  People in the northern hemisphere long ago decided they were more important than people living below the equator, and placed themselves at the top of the map.  But it is perfectly valid to draw a map with Antarctica at the top.  I suspect there are some for sale on the internet.  Confuse your friends!!

Answer 17

The Earth is a ball.

If you want to draw it on a sheet of paper, then you'd normally draw a circle.

We live on the surface.

There is so much mass inside Earth, that it pulls us towards the centre (this force is called gravity).

Wherever you are on the circle, this force pulls you towards the centre.  Therefore, wherever you are, the surface appears level and you do not fall off (you cannot fall off).

If someone lived exactly on the other side of Earth from you, the direction in which you are pulled happens to be towards them.  The direction in which they are pulled happens to be towards you.

For you, they are upside down.  For them, you are upside down.

In reality, you are both pulled towards the centre, so you are both OK.

If you get far enough away from Earth and closer to another big mass (let's say, the Moon), then it will be the gravity from the Moon that will pull you.  Once on the surface of the Moon, the gravity of the Moon will pull you towards the centre of the Moon and you will have the impression of standing straight up, wherever you are on the Moon.

You do not fall to the centre, because the surface is in the way and pushes back on you (this is what we feel as "weight").

Gravity.  Keeps all of us feeling OK on the ground.  Enjoy it.

Answer 18

*laughing*

The Earth is a sphere!

Answer 19

oblate spheroid- which is a three dimensional object (not flat)

Answer 20

It's a sphere.

The reason we don't fall off is gravity, it's trying to pull everything within it's reach towards the center of the earth

Answer 21

The earth is a sphere shape. Which is basically a circle in 3D. I'm not sure how we don't fall off.. Maybe gravity?

Hope this helps,

Best of Luck! :]

Jena

Answer 22

Neither. It's a sphere.

Answer 23

The earth is a sphere, and we don't fall off because of gravity.