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The challenge is that when the Earth gets shrunken down to the size of a globe the height differences of the topographical features become imperceptible. The sa
by BitwiseFool 4y ago
The challenge is that when the Earth gets shrunken down to the size of a globe the height differences of the topographical features become imperceptible. The same is true for how oblate the Earth is at the equator, its too subtle to appear at-scale. I don't have the math but I believe the height difference between Mt.Everest and the Mariana Trench is thinner than a sheet of paper for the size of globe that can fit on your desk, if I recall correctly.
- vikingerik 4y agoRight. The height difference between the high and low points is roughly 20 km. That's 1/650 of Earth's diameter of roughly 13000 km. If your globe on your desk is 65 cm wide, the topographic variation is 1 mm. Not quite thinner than a sheet of paper, but imperceptible to the human eye. Globes that show topography magnify it in the vertical direction, by at least 10x. Mountains may look huge to us puny humans, but they're infinitesimal at the scale of Earth's full size.
- soneca 4y agoThanks for both clarifications. I should have done the math before asking.
- millerm 4y agoIf you would’ve done the math first I wouldn’t have enjoyed the conversation. Now we know. I actually had a globe back in the day that did have raised areas for land. That was obviously not to scale. Now you have to figure out how to explain to flat earther’s their big question “how does the water stick?”. I suppose if you figure out how to shove enough mass into that globe, you could show them how gravity would do it. ;-)