![]() If you were to draw a straight line from Mauna Kea (elevation: 13,796 ft.) to Kawaikini (elevation: 5226 ft.) it would span a distance of 303 miles. The island of Kauai has the seventh highest point in the Hawaiian islands: the peak known as Kawaikini. With nothing but the ocean around it, and a few other nearby islands, you should be able to see extremely far away. Mauna Kea, the highest peak in Hawaii (the summit of the Big Island), offers incredible views. SiegelĤ.) You cannot see Kawaikini from the peak of Mauna Kea. The fact that they aren't indicates the Earth's curvature. any high mountain within the line-of-sight of the tall mountain you're atop would be visible. The method of Biruni for calculating the Earth's circumference. If the Earth were flat, the Sun's rays would always come in at the same angle, meaning that the USA, Australia, Italy, and Argentina would all experience the seasons the same exact way. Ever notice how the summer in the United States corresponds to winter in Australia? Or how winter in Italy lines up with summer in Argentina? This is because the Sun's rays, which are almost perfectly parallel, strike Earth at different angles during different parts of the year. If we go even further, a flat Earth would have the same angle, and therefore the same season, everywhere.Ģ.) Different locations on Earth experience seasons at different times. ![]() But if the Earth’s surface were curved (bottom), shadows at different locations would cast different shadows on the same day, depending on the angle that the Sun’s rays struck the object in question. solstice everywhere on Earth (top), no matter where you were located. The infusion of water from melted polar ice goes straight to Earth’s waistline.If the Earth were perfectly flat, then the Sun’s rays would cast identical shadows at noon on the. The "dominant contributor” is ice loss, primarily from Greenland and Antartica. Recently, using data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, Robert Nere and John Wahr found reduction of the bulge had slowed and recently stopped. This is mostly due to recovery from the last ice age which ended only about 12,000 years ago and the massive ice sheets covering most of the Earth's surface. Scientists have been observing that bulge, noting that it has been reducing at a rate of about one quarter inch each year. This number is used in a variety of calculations to adjust the force of gravity based on latitude as well as determining satellite orbits. Measure these images straight from NOAA weather satellites and you'll come up with ratios very close to the 0.99665 ratio of the equator to the poles. Though look closely at images larger than 5000x5000 pixels and you’ll find it occupies a pixel or more of the image side to side than it does top to bottom. Looking at full disk images produced by weather satellites or NASA missions, the Earth looks quite round. The greater the rotational force and the more fluid the planet (including its atmosphere, oceans and body), the more oblate the planet. Oblateness is caused by rotational forces and the tendency to redistribute the oceans and even the body of the planet itself along the equator. Think of it this way: standing on the equator, you are about 13 miles further from the center of the Earth than someone standing at one of the poles. The difference in diameters measured at the poles and at the equator is very slight, only about 26 miles. Looking over the conference agenda, they did get one point right: the Earth is not round.Īn oblate spheroid is a sphere slightly squashed at the poles and a bit wider at the equator.
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