Earth is round, but flat-earthers still exist

Long before satellite images and airplanes, ancient civilizations used the stars and the movement of the Sun to figure out that the Earth was round…well round-ish! Historically, the shape of the Earth has caused some controversy. So let’s start with the facts: the Earth is only round…ish. It’s technically considered more of an ellipsoid, which looks like a sphere that’s a little too long on either end, like an egg or a football. This shape is caused by the sheer speed of Earth’s rotation, which makes our planet about 70,000 feet wider at the Equator than at the poles. The Moon’s gravitational pull on the tides also contributes. While the Earth may not be a perfect sphere, the important thing to remember here is that the Earth is NOT! FLAT! But…how did we figure that out? In ancient Greece, the philosopher Aristotle was one of the first people to theorize that our planet was round. He figured this out with the help of the solar system. He observed that the Earth has a round shadow during a lunar eclipse and concluded that the shape of the planet must also be a sphere. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan’s crew tangibly confirmed the spherical shape in the 16th century, when they became the first to circumnavigate the globe. Despite fears that they would sail right off the edge of the Earth, 18 sailors made it back to Spain alive. Since then, many sea voyages and airplane rides have been completed safely, and many, many photos have been taken that continue to prove that the Earth is round. And more than that, there is science behind it. The gravitational force of the Earth acts equally on all of the planet’s matter, pulling everything toward a single center point. Every point on Earth’s surface (give or take a few mountain ranges) is roughly equidistant from the core, and the only 3D shape you can make with a single distance from a center point is a sphere. If that’s too theoretical for you, just remember: we’ve been to space, and we have pictures. While that 16th-century fear of falling off the Earth’s edge has been disproven, there are still some people who believe in a flat Earth. We don’t know where they get their ideas, but we do know enough not to argue with gravity.