Its diameter (the distance from one side to the other through Earth’s center) is 7,926 miles
(about 12,756 kilometers)
. Earth is slightly smaller when measured between the North and South Poles which gives a diameter of 7,907 miles (12,725 kilometers).
What is the diameter of Earth in physics?
Bibliographic Entry Result (w/surrounding text) Standardized Result | Earth, Space and Time: An Introduction to Earth Science. New York: Wiley, 1979. “12,752 km” 12,752 km | earth. Infoplease.com. “The equatorial diameter is c.7,926 mi (12,760 km) and the polar diameter 7,900 mi (12,720 km)” 12,760 km 12,720 km |
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What is the exact shape and size of the Earth?
However, from pole to pole — the meridional circumference — Earth is only 24,860 miles (40,008 km) around. Our planet’s shape, caused by the flattening at the poles, is called an
oblate spheroid
. Those numbers make Earth just slightly bigger than Venus, whose equatorial radius is about 3,761 miles (6,052 km).
What is the diameter of Earth compared to Earth?
The Earth has a radius of 2.439 kilometers / 1.516 miles and a
diameter of only 12.742 km / 7.917 mi
. When it comes to weight, the mass of Earth is equivalent to 5.9 quadrillion kg. In the Solar System, our Earth is the fifth largest planet and the largest of the terrestrial planets.
What is the diameter of Earth NASA?
Earth is the fifth-largest planet in the solar system. Its diameter is
about 8,000 miles
.
What is Earth’s true shape?
The oblate spheroid, or oblate ellipsoid
, is an ellipsoid of revolution obtained by rotating an ellipse about its shorter axis. It is the regular geometric shape that most nearly approximates the shape of the Earth. A spheroid describing the figure of the Earth or other celestial body is called a reference ellipsoid.
How do we measure the size of the Earth?
The answer is
360°/10° = 36
. This tells us that Earth’s circumference is simply equal to 36 times the distance between the pair of trees! When the shadows of two vertical structures point toward or away from each other, the size of Earth can readily be calculated.
How was Earth’s diameter calculated?
This means that Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth to be about 40,000 km. He also knew that the circumference of a circle was equal to 2 times π (3.1415…) times the
radius
of the circle. … The diameter of a circle is twice the radius, giving us a diameter for Earth of 12,756 km.
Which is bigger sun or Earth?
The sun lies at the heart of the solar system, where it is by far the largest object. It holds 99.8% of the solar system’s mass and is
roughly 109 times the diameter of the Earth
— about one million Earths could fit inside the sun.
What is the biggest star?
The cosmos is full of objects that defy expectations. Although it’s difficult to pin down the exact traits of any given star, based on what we know, the largest star is
UY Scuti
, which is some 1,700 times as wide as the Sun.
What is Earth’s radius?
According to data taken by 183 high-school classes participating in a World Year of Physics project, “Measure the Earth with Shadows”, the radius of Earth is
6563 km
, compared to the accepted value for the mean radius of 6371 km. Of course, no one is claiming the size of Earth has actually changed.
How did Earth get its name?
All of the planets, except for Earth,
were named after Greek and Roman gods and godesses
. The name Earth is an English/German name which simply means the ground. It comes from the Old English words ‘eor(th)e’ and ‘ertha’.
Does Earth have a number?
Unlike some other planets in the system that have three or more rings,
the Earth has zero
, but we do have one lonely moon that orbits us. Earth is the third planet from the sun and is located about 93,000,000 miles away from it.
How was the Earth first measured?
Earth’s circumference was first accurately measured more than 2,000 years ago by
the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes
, who at the time lived in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. … On the day the Sun shone on the bottom of the wells in Syene, Eratosthenes measured the Sun’s position in the sky over Alexandria.