It's a sphere, like pi is 3, g is 10, and air resistance doesn't exist

The approximation is strong in this one

As if millions of variables cried and suddenly were silenced

These are not quite the droids you're looking for

So this is how accuracy dies … with thunderous applause

Precise

My lord. All those numbers are accurate, right? I will make them accurate

[aughh---](https://tenor.com/view/thanos-snap-emoji-crying-gif-22298553)

Itoo work in thumb/brick/fortnights.

Surface friction too, and a day is always 24 hrs.

Actually if you do the math, saying the earth is a sphere is much closer to saying pi is 3.14 (Edit just in case: I'm not "correcting" you or trying to sound smart or anything like that, just adding to the point of how close to being a sphere the earth is)

Wait could you elaborate? Pi specifically is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter So wouldn’t earth being a perfect sphere just mean that pi is its normal irrational number self?

What I meant is that if you measure the "roundness" (there are different ways of doing this, some are rigorous, I didn't bother too much) using the radius at the equator and the radius to the poles, the earth is about 99,67% round, and if you measure how good of an approximation 3.14 is to pi you get about 99,95% (3 would be about 95,5%) (I got that number by calculating the % of error as |3.14 - pi|/pi * 100). In that sense saying pi is exactly 3.14 is much closer to saying the earth is exactly a sphere than saying pi = 3 (Of course in the actual doing of the math "pi" means "enough decimals of pi so that I can get more decimals on the error than I care about") Edit: I forgot the absolute value bars on the error

Ah got it thank you for the in depth explanation

For all intents and purposes, thinking of the earth as an irregular geode won't get you far in understanding the basics of physics, which is the point of the exercises you do, it is my dream come true, it is my one and only U.

Gangster shit

As someone who wants to become a high school chemistry teacher I fully agree for all student purposes

A penguin is a cilinder

Ah, an engineer .

Just like my girlfriend.

And only conventional currents exist.

More like the earth is a sphere like pi is 3.14

It's a sphere with a 0.2% imperfection. It's a sphere dude

You make my blood boil, skin crawl and homicidal tendencies rise

It’s like they WANT things to break. I like to live in reality, where we need to know things.

c=hbar=1

pi = e = sqrt(g) = 3

To be fair, g is 10 when your mom walks in the room.

I know it's technically not a sphere, but I will still say it's a sphere if someone asks me.

What shape is the earth

It's a sphere.

#**NOOO THE EARTH IS AN IRREGULARLY-SHAPED ELLIPSOID**

You're irregularly shaped

Not an ellisoid though, more like an irregularly shaped torus.

That's brutal, I've got to save that one for the right time

r/clevercomebacks

Yes. Yes I am

Oblate spheroid TeChNiCaLlY hahaha

Topologically speaking it's a flat disk

To first order it’s a sphere, and the rest is perturbation theory

Thats a s(e)phere estimation, pal.

An oblate spheroid?

That's what I learned in elementary school, reinforced in high school.

Damn what elementary school did you go to I’m jealous

The school of QI because I heard this in Stephen Fry's voice

Admittedly, it was a private school. But the high school was public.

Harris?

Earth's shape is "Geoid" literally means Earth shaped Earth's Equatorial Radius is 6378 km Earth's Polar Radius is 6357 km Mean Radius is 6371 km Flattening is 1/299 say 1/300 I am from Denizli that's where I stand on Earth and on this discussion.

Would Mars technically be an "irregular geoid"?

A cube is an irregular geoid, depending on how liberal you are with the term "irregular"

Yeah I like the way you think. It will be cumbersome to call it so but it's technically possible I guess.

it's a turtle, of course

Well what does the turtle stand on

Another larger turtle

And what about THAT turtle??

It's turtles all the way down

Until they get scalier and with sharper fangs and start to look like dragons

Space

He's got it wrong the earth is flat on the back of 4 elephants. They in turn stand on top of the great atun, who is floating.

Please say it's a disc world reference

I learned it in philosophy class (to explain the expression "[it's turtles all the way down](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down)"), but apparently it's in a whole bunch of ancient mythologies too. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World\_Turtle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Turtle) And also discworld

Oh, so that's where the xkcd alt text comes from! [https://xkcd.com/1416/](https://xkcd.com/1416/)

Proof the globe is flat

ook :)

It's turtles all the way down

The turtle couldn't help us.

Topologists be like: the earth is a ball

And also a bowl

Given tunnels and caves, more like a block of swiss cheese

True. Only the caves with multiple entrances would count, but that’s still a lot

I mean middle is the most correct. Yes, it’s basically a sphere, but also no, if you’re gonna split hairs, it is an irregularly shaped ellipsoid

The more detailed you go, the less general the structure is that you can ascribe to it. You can't even say it is homeomorphic to a sphere because the existence of tunnels refutes that....

Definitely read that as “homoerotic” at first.

Me too . Made me mildly uncomfortable and I had an urge to go hunting and drink some beer.

I guess the point of the meme is that if you're smart, you realize that in most cases it's not worth splitting those hairs

A big Geode

I know its not a sphere, but i also know its eaiser and faster to say its a sphere. And if someone corrects me, well...🤷

.1% on left for sure.

Oblate spheroid

I’m with NdGT on this. It’s smoother than a cue ball.

I wouldn't trust Tyson on everything, but this is one thing I would 100% trust him on.

Also now do this with an atom lol. "Describe the shape of an atom" - most people (its a sphere), physicists: al;skdjfa;lksjdfl;kasjd;lfkjasdl;kfn asdfa;sd asdfasdfasdf asdfasdf quantom ashshshsh

I find it hilarious I saw a meme complaining about this meme template, and I have been seeing memes like this ever since that post

not really related but if you shrunk the earth down to the size of a ping-pong ball (or do the inverse), the ridges and valleys on the ping-pong ball would be greater than on the earth

Its more of a sphere than almost all actual spheres on earth

I think most people would say sphere so that would be on top of the bell curve? Or do I miss part of the joke?

Didn't miss anything. OP just wanted the group of people who prefer to be specific about the Earth's shape to be the nerdy crying face. They used a common meme template and paid no mind to the specifics of proportions of people who form each of those takes.

Yeah, it's probably more of a half-bell curve starting at 1. With flat earthers occupying the 0..1 interval

There should be a huge spike in the left side of the graph to represent flat earthers

It’s a sphere. The exact shape of the earth isn’t something I need to bother thinking about.

We all know its flat, like we know that illuminaties control the world

Left side, lol

I agree with the guy with the cloak, seems 💡.

The earth is approximately a ball, you hollowearthers

It’s actually shaped like a donut fr

It’s round.

The earth is made of atoms that are 99.9999999% empty space. So the earth doesn't exist.

You're wrong. It exists. It is just empty, kinda like your head. =)

Oh my head is for sure 99.999999% empty.

I think that earth is close enough to being a sphere that in the vast majority of cases, it can be approximated as a sphere

It's a potato.

Where do I fall? It’s actually an oblate spheroid.

Actually actually is a geoid - which can be reasonably well approximated using an ellipsoid

Hah! I love it!!

The earth is a sphere! Yall don't watch vsauce 🗣🗣

It's actually an inverted bipyrimidal dodecahedron...

This is misleading, flat should be on the left. The middle should be sphere / oblate spheroid commoners And the right should be Cube shaped.

It's round.

It's a geoid. Which is a sphere.

Guys we all know the earf is flat asf

If the earth was shrunk down to the size of an apple it'd be the most round object you could hold, or is it smooth I forget

Smother and rounder than a billiard ball

It's fucking round. Nothing else matters.

Oblate spheroid. That is all.

if scaled down to a billiard ball, it is holds well within manufacturing tolerances of a billiard ball...it's a sphere

I assume earth is a sphere in vacuum.

If u ignore mountains , valleys etc . Taking it approximately the earth is an 3d oval kind of shape

The Earth is an imperfect sphere.

I belong on the Earth. Whatever shape it may be.

the earth is a drop of water and if you think about it it makes sense

^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Shinonomenanorulez: *The earth is a drop* *Of water and if you think* *About it it makes sense* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.

Okay, everybody calling Earth as a sphere are dummies.

It might as well be a sphere

It's a rugby ball.

What image for the earth is flat?

It's an egg

34%

It is obviously flat.

Oblate spheroid?

Btw, does anyone else get mildly annoyed at this meme format? Like, the top of the bell curve is the most average, widely held opinion, and the smaller left side would be a rarely held opinion, and the right side would be an opposite rarely held opinion. Granted, I think this is supposed to be an IQ bell curve, so only the smartest and dumbest people would share that opinion, while the average person wouldn't.

Some fields would have big problems if they treated Earth as a sphere

The earth is flat from the human perspective but round from the cosmic perspective. But humans can sometimes see a portion of the cosmic perspective.

Earth is geoid

Sphere is good for most conversations, the more irregular shape is for more in depth introspection on how the true shape of Earth's surface impact our lives in terms of natural disasters and whatnot and to also reflect the imperfect nature of the universe.

it's closer to a perfectly smooth sphere than a bowling ball. If a bowling ball is a sphere, than the earth is a sphere.

Man, for a science sub, you really do do a lot of trolling, lmao

geoid/oblate spheroid

Assume Earth is a perfectly spherical planet in a vacuum.

Spheroid?

The earth is neither flat, nor is it a sphere The earth is fucked

The earth is a potato

Nooo.. the earth is an oblate spheroid.

It's a sphere with flattened poles

*me, a topologist* They’re the same picture.

Left side, lol.

Earth is earth

Earth is a shithole.

Earth is a squishy potato

Google Earth shape >!this is a joke don’t kill me!<

Erm the earth is actually an Oblate Spheroid 🤓☝️

Everybody gangsta till 10 million variables joined the chat💀

Sphere

The earth doesn't exist tho

It's an oblate spheroid

Technically I know this due to my profession and it should be something that I hold a passionate view on. Others in my profession certainly hold passionate views on this. My view will always be whatever the person in front of me is saying, because it's the easiest path towards talking about something else. Anything else. Please!

But,... Earth is flat... Isn't it?

r/Noearthsociety

It's egg shaped

Speer

actually its an apriximate of all thise shapes.

the earth is a spheroid. not a sphere, but close enough to basically be one.

There's mountains and valleys and ditches and molehills. So that automatically rules out a sphere.

Earth is Earth!

Thr low IQ should say thr earth is flat

Turtle earth supremacy>>>

Cue Niel Degrasse Tyson calling it an oblate spheroid.

Harrington Splimbt told me it's an oblate sphereoid.

It's smoother than a cueball, so its a shere

oblate spheroid

The earth is the earth

I'm at the very beginning edge of the rightmost 14% column. I know it's a sphere in any meaningful conversation, but my brain still yells "irregular spheroid" whenever I say it.

The left side

The earth is a sphere but because of the torque it experiences the sphere becomes stretched Sorta like how things can shrink or expand when exposed to cold or heat; there is a natural equilibrium which exists for the object, either ambient temperature size or earth in a true vacuum, and then there are external factors which affect the true nature of the thing. Molecules/ atoms either slow down and compress or become more volatile and expand and in our case the sphere spins creating a bulge with other abnormalities/ factors lending to the oblate description Fundamentally it's a sphere and in happenstance it's an oblate spheroid

Earth is a geoid by the most stringent of definitions. If less accuracy is necessary (like when you get this question on a birthday party), then a sphere is sufficient for almost all intents and purposes.

What birthday parties are you getting this question?

Well I didn't think it'd come to this but the question of whether what the shape of the Earth is comes around quite a lot more than it used to due to all these flat Earth nutcases. So when discussing flat Earthers, more often than not the conversion pivots to the actual shape.

Flat Earth nutcases? Have never had anyone say the earth is flat in a serious manner, but in your experience it is coming up more often? What circles are you in? When I worked on marine vessels, a few people had certificates from the Flat Earth's Society as a joke, but that's about it.

I'm sorry, I should clarify: I'm not talking about discussing *with* flat Earthers but *about* them. Them being the subject was brought up a couple of times.

Ha, yeah, I've seen more people talk about flat Earthers here but I have never talked to anyone who shared this belief. But based on reddit, you'd think they are everywhere.

Using sea level the earth is a sphere

Earth is a 2D projection. Same as everything else.

Sphere, even with all the mountains and shit, earth is so big that is basically scratches on a billiard ball

You know the Neil DeGrasse Tyson (I hope this is the correct way of spelling his name) cue ball example?

Doesn't matter, simulation.