The Flat Earth Society is an organization that seeks to further the belief that the Earth is flat instead of an oblate spheroid. The modern organization was founded by Englishman Samuel Shenton in 1956 and was later led by Charles K. Johnson, who based the organization in his home in Lancaster, California. The formal society was inactive after Johnson’s death in 2001 but was resurrected in 2004 by its new president Daniel Shenton.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_Society

>> ^deathcow:

>> ^HugeJerk:
Nope, it's a sphere.>> ^MrFisk:
So the Earth is round?


gong!
it's an oblate spheroid, a rotationally symmetrical ellipsoid

The deviation in Earth's curvature is tiny - just 1 part in 300, according to Wikipedia, so it's functionally indistinguishable from a sphere. And if you were to inflate a billiard ball to the size of the Earth, the billiard ball would be less spherical than the planet.

>> ^deathcow:

>> ^HugeJerk:
Nope, it's a sphere.>> ^MrFisk:
So the Earth is round?


gong!
it's an oblate spheroid, a rotationally symmetrical ellipsoid
I always thought it was more globe-shaped, like a basketball or a bowling ball, or a globe.

>> ^HugeJerk:

Nope, it's a sphere.>> ^MrFisk:
So the Earth is round?



gong!

it's an oblate spheroid, a rotationally symmetrical ellipsoid

Sure is round..er, oblate

>> ^deathcow:
I'd say YES all stars are round. Planets become spherical (or oblately spheroidal ; ) at much smaller sizes than required to become stars. So naturally, stars would be spherical or oblate spheroids for very fast rotating stars.


Aren't some stars are oscillating in vibrational modes? That would mean they have a constantly changing shape:

http://www.pnas.org/content/suppl/2008/09/25/0803748105.DCSupplemental/SM2.gif

Though I guess that means spheroidal and oblately spheroidal.

I'd say YES all stars are round. Planets become spherical (or oblately spheroidal ; ) at much smaller sizes than required to become stars. So naturally, stars would be spherical or oblate spheroids for very fast rotating stars.

>> ^SaNdMaN:
"Oblates"? I don't think there's a verb like that.


Maybe he meant a combination of the adjective "oblate" and the verb "ablate"

[of a spheroid, flattened at the poles] + [the loss of material from a spacecraft or meteorite through evaporation or melting caused by the friction of the atmosphere] = "Oblates"?

I'm so smart. S-M-R-T

"Oblates"? I don't think there's a verb like that.

> The problem with that line is that the Earth has been proven to be, in fact round.

Actually Wumpus, the Earth is an oblate spheroid..