TOP 10 REASONS Why We Know the Earth is Round)

10. All of the other planets and stars we've ever seen are round, and there's no reason to indicate that the Earth should be any different. 9. Time zones. Day and night happen at different times at different places on Earth. In fact, it's always day somewhere and night somewhere else. 8. The Coriolis effect means freely moving things like cannonballs or hurricane winds are deflected to the right, but only if you're north of the equator. If you're south of the equator, they're deflected left. 7. Triangles. If you walk 10,000 kilometers straight along the Earth's surface, turn 90 degrees to your right, walk 10,000 kilometers more, turn right again and walk another 10,000 kilometers, you'll be back to where you started, having successfully made a triangle with three 90-degree angles. As any geometry student can tell you, this is impossible on a flat surface. 6. The sun, in general, gets lower and lower in the sky as you travel away from the equator, and you can use this to directly measure the Earth's curvature. Pick two places a few hundred miles directly north and south of each other, and at noon, measure the shadows cast by a vertical meter stick at each location. You can use the shadow lengths to figure out the angle between the sticks, and once you add in how far apart they are, you can calculate the Earth's curvature. 5. The stars at night change as you go north or south. For example, Orion is upside down if you're in Australia. 4. Ferdinand Magellan, and many people afterwards, circumnavigated the Earth. That means he left-headed west, continued going west, and came back to where he started, still going west. Actually, Magellan was dead, but one of his ships, led by Juan Sebastián Elcano, finished the journey. If you head west and circumnavigate the Earth yourself, you'll be able to tell, because you'll observe one fewer sunrise than everyone who stays at home. 3. The horizon. Ships on the ocean or tall Chicago buildings viewed over Lake Michigan disappear bottom first, and you can see the sunset twice if you watch it lying down and then quickly stand up. The simple fact is, if the Earth were flat, there wouldn't be a horizon beyond which So from across Lake Michigan, you'd be able to see all of Chicago, as well as the Rocky Mountains. 2. During a lunar eclipse, the shadow of the Earth on the moon is curved. And 1. We know the Earth is round because we have photographic evidence. This episode of MinutePhysics is supported by Audible.com, the leading provider of audiobooks across all types of literature, including fiction, nonfiction, and periodicals. If you want to learn more about the role of geometry in physics, you might want to check out Euclid's Window by Leonard Mlodinow. You can download this audiobook, or another of your choice, for free at audible.com slash MinutePhysics. Again, thanks to Audible for making it possible for me to keep producing MinutePhysics, and for giving you a free audiobook at audible.com slash MinutePhysics.