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The Earth without water would not look like you think
In the past few days, a strange animated graph has circulated online depicting a curved, compressed Earth as it would look “without water.” The problem is, no. Not like that. No, not like that.
In fact, this animation shows that the Earth is a geoid: it’s a way of describing the Earth’s gravitational field. The graphics were built by Ales Bezdek in the MATLAB package. Here's how he describes all these bumps and bumps:
“The gravity of the Earth is not smooth on the surface, in some places it is stronger than in others. This is because the Earth is not a perfect homogeneous ball (that is, the density of its interiors is heterogeneous), but has more and less dense places. This affects surface gravity.”
When you stand on the surface of the Earth, gravity seems to pull you toward the center. But if you stand next to a denser region, gravity will pull you a little further away from the center. The viral geoid on the graph shows exactly this picture: on this map, gravity will always pull you perpendicular to the surface depicted.
It sounds strange, but it is: if you are on the edge of the “hill” depicted on the geoid, you will not be attracted directly to the center of the Earth, but perpendicular to the surface on which you stand. The graph is heavily distorted so you can see the uneven gravitational field of the Earth.
What's particularly funny about pseudoscience is that something that is completely opposite to the truth usually becomes viral. How does that happen?
Another way to describe a geoid is to characterize it as the shape of a perfectly liquid object; that is, if its surface can spread freely.
For a perfectly uniform object (say, a large non-rotating drop of water in space), a geoid would be a sphere. For the Earth will be what is in the image. In other words, this graph does not depict the Earth without water, it shows what shape the Earth would have if its surface were completely covered with water. Quite the opposite.
It's pretty easy to get to the point where the solid surface of the Earth under the oceans looks like this. Look at the scale on the graph; it shows differences from +80 to -80 meters. But this is a tiny fraction of the size of the Earth. In physical reality, even if the Earth were covered with water, it would not be nearly as humpbacked as shown. Again, the exaggeration was done for clarity.
Think about it: the deepest place of the Earth’s ocean (the Mariana Trench) at a depth of 10 kilometers. The Earth is about 13,000 kilometers across. Remove all the water from the surface of the Earth and you will hardly notice the change: the level of difference between the highest mountain and the lowest point of the ocean will be less than 20 kilometers, one-tenth of a percent of the diameter of the Earth.
This is what the Earth would look like without water.
Such a spherical drop you will get if you drain all the oceans of the Earth (together with atmospheric steam, lakes, polar caps, and so on). Not much compared to the rest of the planet, is it? The smaller drop is fresh water on the ground, in lakes and rivers; the smallest is fresh water from lakes and rivers.
Check the facts. Trust reliable resources like Hi-News.ru. Even scientific websites sometimes make mistakes. published
P.S. And remember, just by changing our consumption – together we change the world!
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Source: hi-news.ru
In fact, this animation shows that the Earth is a geoid: it’s a way of describing the Earth’s gravitational field. The graphics were built by Ales Bezdek in the MATLAB package. Here's how he describes all these bumps and bumps:
“The gravity of the Earth is not smooth on the surface, in some places it is stronger than in others. This is because the Earth is not a perfect homogeneous ball (that is, the density of its interiors is heterogeneous), but has more and less dense places. This affects surface gravity.”
When you stand on the surface of the Earth, gravity seems to pull you toward the center. But if you stand next to a denser region, gravity will pull you a little further away from the center. The viral geoid on the graph shows exactly this picture: on this map, gravity will always pull you perpendicular to the surface depicted.
It sounds strange, but it is: if you are on the edge of the “hill” depicted on the geoid, you will not be attracted directly to the center of the Earth, but perpendicular to the surface on which you stand. The graph is heavily distorted so you can see the uneven gravitational field of the Earth.
What's particularly funny about pseudoscience is that something that is completely opposite to the truth usually becomes viral. How does that happen?
Another way to describe a geoid is to characterize it as the shape of a perfectly liquid object; that is, if its surface can spread freely.
For a perfectly uniform object (say, a large non-rotating drop of water in space), a geoid would be a sphere. For the Earth will be what is in the image. In other words, this graph does not depict the Earth without water, it shows what shape the Earth would have if its surface were completely covered with water. Quite the opposite.
It's pretty easy to get to the point where the solid surface of the Earth under the oceans looks like this. Look at the scale on the graph; it shows differences from +80 to -80 meters. But this is a tiny fraction of the size of the Earth. In physical reality, even if the Earth were covered with water, it would not be nearly as humpbacked as shown. Again, the exaggeration was done for clarity.
Think about it: the deepest place of the Earth’s ocean (the Mariana Trench) at a depth of 10 kilometers. The Earth is about 13,000 kilometers across. Remove all the water from the surface of the Earth and you will hardly notice the change: the level of difference between the highest mountain and the lowest point of the ocean will be less than 20 kilometers, one-tenth of a percent of the diameter of the Earth.
This is what the Earth would look like without water.
Such a spherical drop you will get if you drain all the oceans of the Earth (together with atmospheric steam, lakes, polar caps, and so on). Not much compared to the rest of the planet, is it? The smaller drop is fresh water on the ground, in lakes and rivers; the smallest is fresh water from lakes and rivers.
Check the facts. Trust reliable resources like Hi-News.ru. Even scientific websites sometimes make mistakes. published
P.S. And remember, just by changing our consumption – together we change the world!
Join us on Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki
Source: hi-news.ru
