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Earth is not quite a perfect sphere. The spinning of the planet causes it to bulge at the equator. Scientists describe Earth’s shape as ‘geoid’, which, interestingly, means ‘Earth-shaped’. |
The shape of the Earth is geoid.
Earth looks like a blue marble with white swirls and areas of brown, yellow, green and white from space.
- The blue is water, which covers about 71 per cent of Earth’s surface.
- The white swirls are clouds. The areas of brown, yellow and green are land.
- The areas of white are ice and snow.
Scientists use geodesy, which is the science of measuring Earth’s shape, gravity and rotation. Geodesy provides accurate measurements that show Earth is round. Even though our planet is a sphere, it is not a perfect sphere. Because of the force caused when Earth rotates, the North and South Poles are slightly flat.
Credit: Byjus
Picture credit: Google
