– basically, why is the structure the way it Is. Moreover, what significance can we attribute to this matter of fact? Thanks!
In: Earth Science
Gravity.
All the mass of the earth is pulling on all the other mass of the earth. If the earth wasn’t spinning, the only stable shape where everything doesn’t want to move is a ball, so any random assembly of bits floating in space, not spinning, and under the influence of gravity only, will form a ball.
The earth is spinning, so it bulges a little around the equator, but it’s so close to a ball that we usually can’t tell the difference (your GPS knows though).
There’s no significance to this fact, really, other than “because gravity.”
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