Earth Is a Potato
Gravitationally speaking
by Marina Koren
Jul 10, 2023
3 minutes
Earth, in most renderings, is a smooth sphere with a glossy complexion—a blue marble, as pictures snapped from space have shown us. Earth scientists know that’s not exactly true. Earth, in fact, is an ellipsoid, a little bit squashed at the poles and fat around the equator, not to mention speckled with mountain ranges. And then you have the geoid people—the ones who think of Earth less as an imperfect sphere and more as a lumpy potato.
C. K. Shum, a professor at Ohio State University, is one
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