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Earth Facts. What is the Shape of the Earth? The earth’s shape is an Oblate Spheriod. Not an exact...
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Transcript of Earth Facts. What is the Shape of the Earth? The earth’s shape is an Oblate Spheriod. Not an exact...
Earth Facts
What is the Shape of the Earth?The earth’s shape is an Oblate Spheriod.
Not an exact globe, it bulges at the center
24,899 miles at equator
24,817 miles at polar circumference
Caused by rotation on axis
Like a pumpkin
Earth’s Rotation
Spin on its axis
Causes night and day
Contributes to shape
1600 km/hr (1000 mi/hr)
Earth’s orbital speed
29.6 km/sec (18.5 mi/sec)
Causes the length of our year
Earth’s Age4,600,000,000 years old
(4.6 billion years)
EvidenceRadioactive decay
Carbon dating
Fossils
Rock layers
Isotope dating
Superposition
GPS tracking
Oldest rocks3.5 billion years (northeast Canada)
3.5 billion Northern Michigan
Early estimates
6,000 years – biblical esitmate
Physicists started calculating around the year 1700.
Earth’s Diameter
8000 miles or 12,734 km
Distance from sun:
Average of 93,000,000 miles(93 million)
We are closer to the sun in the winter!
Tilted Axis
Tipped 23.5 degrees on its axis to its plane of orbit.
This causes the 4 seasons.
Earth’s Mass
6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tonsPronounced Six sextillion tons
(calculated using Newton's law of gravitation)
Average density = 5.52 g/cm3
Density = mass/volume