Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Why Earth's Surface is Smooth

[@eivindkaisen6838]

In metrics: Mt Everest 8.848 km; Challenger deep max 11.034 km; Earth's diameter, using NdGT’s 8,000 miles = 12,874 km. From highest mountain to lowest deep: 19.872 km, or 0.154% of Earth's diameter. A ball with a diameter of 1 m would then have a maximum "ridge" of 1.54 mm.

[@robertrobertson2117]

I'm assuming this is all correct... well done

[@user10476]

That sounds a lot more than about 2 depth of a fingerprint 🤔

[@remondodemont7364]

Yeeeeey metrics!

[@blackrahk2037]

@@user10476 he said cue ball not a meter ball bruh. He's smarter than youtube homie, let it go.

[@andrewcarysr8378]

Q ball not a meter ball. 🙉😂

[@vimalramachandran]

Earth: smooth but not flat. Love it!

[@TheSAD999]

Like an ice cold beer

[@vimalramachandran]

@@amandachambers6141 By looking at the available evidence.

[@markmakabuhay2009]

@@amandachambers6141 look around ya all the evidence is everywhere, start by observing the moon and the sun then observe an eclipse.

[@havenhellman4272]

@@amandachambers6141 gravity itself is a good enough answer

[@yourlifeisagreatstory]

I recall someone saying it would actually feel similar to running your finger over the top of a pancake. I can’t recall but I the it was Dan the SciMan

[@hammerheartdan6311]

Some dude in space: the earth is round Some dude on earth: the earth is flat Some ant on the ground: the earth is convex

[@Melomathics]

You seem to not know what convex means :-)

[@ViratKohli-jj3wj]

Ant would find the earth flat.

[@Trezker]

@@Melomathics Your mom is convex.

[@waitwhatrly]

Only one has a horizontal horizon👍

[@hammerheartdan6311]

Virat Kohli the idea that an ant would find the earth to be a downwards convex was an exaggeration.

[@Forgan_Mreeman]

Neil ran his finger over where I live. I feel violated

[@godfreyaweror9850]

kabayan!

[@daaaaaaan4696]

HAHAHAH sapul kami

[@Orlanzepol123]

Funny 😄

[@royallan3491]

your profile pic got me laughing so hard

[@pflaffik]

He took away Pluto. We are all violated.

[@T-Tronic]

I love this show! Chuck Nice is a great co-host, he and Neil Tyson have a great chemistry together.

[@MaegnasMw]

Not only that, Chuck is a very intelligent guy who uses everyday language and makes tougher subjects accessible to everyday people. Plus, he's hillarious!

[@thatjasonkid7017]

I hope they fall in love in the season finale

[@DarthDawydh]

You know imperial system is messed up when an astrophysicist has to stop to think to convert 2 units of the same system (feet to miles)

[@Asthfghl]

Indeed. Next up: the height of Mount Everest in elbows.

[@wrightflyer7855]

When I was a boy in school we were told the U.S. would fully convert to the metric system by 1975. I'm 70 now and still waiting......

[@aggelosvatis]

@@wrightflyer7855 Us army did I think.

[@99electronic]

I wish they would switch by now... This is embarrassing

[@ki-lezf1926]

Exactly

[@Melomathics]

I'm making a T-shirt with "The earth - smooth but not flat."

[@theoteddy9665]

id like to have one mate

[@dragondodger8322]

Same here.

[@Forgan_Mreeman]

i'll take 2 1/2

[@Melomathics]

@@theoteddy9665 Here my design: i.ibb. co/CQLLk3F/image.png . google shirtinator to make your own.

[@shouldent]

Flatearthers don't have a clue of how small we are compare to the earth... we are microbes... even the Marina trench is like nothing compare to earth....

[@mrsejd3446]

I love how they say "get with the program" knowing that almost all coutries use metric system.

[@mrsejd3446]

@ yes

[@nathaniscool1097]

Mr'Sejd That’s the joke

[@Bibiblat3607]

Mr'Sejd That’s the joke

[@agoodspoon6302]

That’s the joke

[@gokublackgaming5944]

that's the joke

[@h.m.6228]

Quick quiz: 1 mile = a) 1760 yards b) 5280 feet c) 63360 inches d) 320.9994 rods e) all of the above f) 🤦‍♂️

[@Shariles]

F

[@h.m.6228]

@@Shariles ah, correct: 1 mile = 8 *F* urlongs

[@mr.adequate3742]

d.5) 80 chains

[@4ltrz555]

F

[@HECKproductions]

so how much is 8848m in km? * checks calculator * oh its 8.848.... that was easy

[@kruesae22]

This Video shows exactly why imperial system is impractical. Even a mathematical educated man like Mr. Tyson are able to convert between the units. That's a big problem in science.

[@jjbjjv8288]

Imperial is superior

[@galesx95]

@@jjbjjv8288 of course the empire is superior, even imperial credits are better

[@mrerfrischend6046]

@@jjbjjv8288 No

[@AlainHubert]

@@jjbjjv8288 Perhaps for you, but still impractical. Metric is so much simpler. Everything fits and can be converted easily between units. A kilometer is 1000 meters, simple. And a meter is 100 centimeters, again very simple. Given the density of water, 1 liter of water weighs 1 kilogram, which couldn't be simpler. Whereas a mile is 5280 feet, not an easy number to use for calculations. A foot is 12 inches, again not that easy to use unless you know the multiplication table of 12 by heart. And a gallon of water weighs...8.345 lbs! Imperial system? No thanks.

[@pulkitmohta8964]

@@AlainHubert America loves imperial system. It's their blind love for the imperial system of units that prevents them from using metric

[@matthewhoey3058]

I should be sleeping. I hate school and learning. But this, this bring apart of me out that I never knew was there. I want to learn!

[@jen-ky9mh]

No Quarantine??

[@averageyoutubeuser5537]

Saying you hate school will only make you hate school more

[@frederik1268]

School isnt about learning but memorizing facts Check Prinse EA He has some vids about it

[@begamer90]

I have seen this phenomenon explained by Neil probably 10 times in different videos... and I still listened like it was the first time I've ever heard it :)

[@lordook5413]

some may ask what is he touching when he is getting idea for new smooth video

[@PONCE8ful]

NOBODY CARES

[@kustomhooligans]

Madbat+ I'm a machinist and metal Fabricator, I've machined many steel spheres for handles and other applications and Neil is 100% correct. I'm sure my maths off but in order for a cue ball size sphere to be as perfectly round as the earth, it would have to have less than .0000002XX" of surface imperfection. Cutting any surface to flat to the 6th decimal is extremely difficult, nearly impossible and if you could, it would be insanely expensive. Im talking a $2m+ base price machine.

[@Rispy-12]

This is false, vsauce explains it. The cueball rules were misunderstood, his math would be right, but the rules aren’t talking about the texture of it, the rules talk about the curviness. It would be smoother than a pancake but not a cueball.

[@crunchtimewithcetshwayo4933]

I love that closing line. "The Earth: Smooth but not flat!"👌👌👌

[@davancleere5957]

the metric system is so much better it just makes more sense

[@jenniferbrown7659]

Neil and Chuck are great. I recently started absorbing the podcast and or videos. They make it fun, informative and thought provoking. Thanks Jennifer. Decatur GA USA

[@blasalvice]

One day you'll all be using the metric system ! ... I hope :p

[@Sinnbad21]

Blas I’m American and I can say I hope we do too. The metric system is so much easier and makes a lot more sense

[@gamil867]

They are already using it... bills, some of their beverages but most important the coke dealers haha

[@tindoortailgator]

Not in My Lifetime !

[@theduder2617]

We already do. Our physics courses require us to have a working understanding of the metric system and use it. My question is, why is the rest of the planet so uptight that they refuse to learn our system? Every time it is either a complaint, or a suggestion to use metric. Our system function just fine. Even considering the fact that you get more accurate calculations using metric. Which is why we are willing to learn the metric system. But so many simply refuse to give imperial any effort. To me, that indicates laziness and a refusal to educate.

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

@@theduder2617 This is like saying "why aren't people learning Roman numerals anymore?". Yes, they're interesting, and I like them, but they're just not practical and for that reason, clearly inferior to Arabic numerals. People can learn the imperial system as a curiosity, but certainly won't use it in real life, given the choice of both systems.

[@Hogan698]

"Neutron stars are the smoothest objects in the universe" I disagree. Chuck Nice is smoother. *fist bump*

[@ViratKohli-jj3wj]

Epic Bruh moment

[@N17-o2r]

Epic fail

[@l-Jeremy]

Thank you Dr. Tyson & Mr. Nice :)

[@Kur-Six]

"The earth... SMOOTH, but not flat!"

[@The.Nasty.]

Best channel on KZbin, hilarious AND educational.

[@The.Nasty.]

@@HopDavid lmao VSAUCE he says…

[@The.Nasty.]

@@HopDavid hence why my comment says “hilarious” before “educational” 🙏🏼

[@jimmyers4890]

Great episode. I would love for you to do a show about pollution using the globe to illustrate how thin our atmosphere is. Ask Chuck how far out from the surface of the globe our atmosphere extends by showing you with his hand. I know you are concerned with what is out there but if we don't take care of what is down here we won't be around to see what is up there.

[@heresthethingyouguys]

I love this explainers segments.

[@bobbyluck8953]

My cousin tried describing this video to me, I had to come find it. See I don't doubt your teaching, I just had pre conceived notions. Thank goodness for the www

[@IfYouKnowYouKnow.]

Much love & light to both of u great gentlemen.

[@exoplanets]

Great video. One day, we will be able to detect the *mountains of exoplanets*

[@paranoxxxx]

Doctor, can you please do an episode explaining every different kind of star? It is such an interesting topic and the kids would love to hear you define them.

[@BernalVSimRacing]

Question; would you be able to feel the difference in texture between land and water? Or even ice?

[@advoketplaiz5962]

2:21 Flat Earther: Breathing intensifies

[@ZeroOskul]

Lay eight meter sticks end-to-end. That is eight thousand milimeters. Imagine that each milimeter is a mile. Color in the twelve milimeters at each far end. Those twelve milimeters (24 in total) represent the roughness of the surface of the Earth relative to its entire diameter. Reduce the size about 20 times and you have the globe Neil is describing.

[@uprightfossil6673]

I'm American. You lost me when i had to remove my shoes to keep up.so now I have 8 sticks in the way of my lawn mower. What to do?

[@brookscarpenter8327]

Everest is a bit taller. 29,029 feet. 8,848 meters. I think the really interesting thing is that the farthest point on Earth from the core is in the Andes. 2,000 meters or so farther away than Everest's peak. Love listening to Star Talk though. Binge listen at work.

[@kruleworld]

Chimborazo in Ecuador is the tallest from Earth's center. (yes i had to google the spelling)

[@MaartenOosterbaan]

@@kruleworld QI watcher?

[@adriac25]

Correct, Chimborazo is actually closer to space than Mt. Everest. It is also actually as high as the Marianna trench is deep.

[@hamiljohn]

Loved seeing Chuck in 'The week of'. Just go with it...

[@marble25]

28 thousand feet? 5 and a half miles? 48 thousand chicken foot? 7000 bananas? Get metric, get scientific.

[@vallov4188]

That's almost 97 football fields!

[@ryanbagby7153]

Thats alot of bananas

[@lukthere2]

10 thousand spits

[@ltwadley7619]

Metric system is much easier to comprehend, but we Americans will never bend the knee.

[@simpcop9170]

Dahm right

[@jeremiahlopez3615]

Love you guys -Philippines

[@Dirtyburke]

Thaaaankyou for again reminding me of the giant ball of fire we're floating on; just riding the layer safest for me to exist on.

[@Hody0909]

I've heard some people saying Neil is wrong and stating false facts. I did my own math and he seems to be correct. A cue ball has tolerances of 1/450 and the Earth's biggest divet (6 miles) is 1/1330. So he is correct!

[@dwhaali5733]

From Syria 🇸🇾 love you

[@applicableapple3991]

Imagine if someone made a globe that actually looked like earth, with the clouds and everything else. It would be so useless yet cool

[@spridle]

Let's put a globe of Earth into Earth's orbit. Trippy.

[@nickbisson8243]

Mova Globes are kinda like that definitely worth checking out

[@J040PL7]

how tall would you have to be to start seeing the curvature of the earth? would it be above atmosphere?

[@Hooyahfish]

J040PL7 yeah for sure. You need to be like 50 miles straight up to see a small curve.

[@trainelekid]

I love Chuck his comedy runs the whole gambit from wholesome to raunchy i love it xD

[@gregsteele806]

Also, the International Space Station would be orbiting less than an inch above that globe. I don't know the exact size of the globe in the video, so I can't say exactly how much less, but if the globe was 8" in diameter, the ISS would be only 1/4 inch above it. (Aprx. 250 miles above an 8,000 mile diameter earth).

[@mk-3079]

Use metric system please.Or in edit convert and put it on the screen

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

The reason the metric system is superior directly originates from the fact we count in base 10, so having units matching this base is ideal as it makes everything natural for us, and that's what we want for numbers, we want to be able to calculate fast and easily visualize what they mean. For a computer for example, this system is not ideal, since it uses base 2, so any power of 2 would be better than base 10, like base 8 or base 16. Had we historically chosen base 8 instead of base 10 (maybe if we had only 4 fingers per hand), then the metric system in that alternate world would also have been using that base 8.

[@fabiosousa9814]

Uses Km! Miles are a thing of the past! Keep up amrca!

[@pulkitmohta8964]

For them, miles are a thing of present, and km are a thing of a past

[@awkwardauntie1978]

So smoove, there's a reason why, mountains can be so high.

[@guilhermecastrolimadasilva7611]

(Metric folk) = (USA U Myanmar U Liberia)’ Star talk: uses imperial system. Literally the rest of the world - 2 other countries: please stop

[@dougdevine27]

As a citizen of the USA, I fully support ditching the imperial system. It's silly.

[@jjbjjv8288]

Imperial is superior

[@MaartenOosterbaan]

@@jjbjjv8288 That's why any noteworthy science done, even in the USA, is calculated in Imperi...owh wait a minute....

[@Apjooz]

I wish someone tried to design chips using inches.

[@OkDannnn]

jjb jjv the imperial doesnt make sense, its subjective

[@KressRudra]

cool about the gravity-height limit and neutron stars

[@silvja8868]

So funny! I love this channel!

[@guillelainez]

I first heard this in JRE!!!

[@jerichojoe307]

Neil is one of the smartest men I've ever heard lecture, but you don't blow through facts in order to get to your point. He said that the Mariana trench would be about 6 miles deep, it's closer to 7 I know it's only one mile but in terms of percentage percentage matters so that one mile that he neglected is a large percentage and matters. Which is odd because in many of his lectures he's very keen on picking up these little technicalities and distinguishing them from his point. Secondly a cue ball is only allowed to have by billiard standards a deviation of like 5,000 of an inch that is talking about its roundness it's sphericalness not necessarily it's smoothness. If you were to zoom in on a cue ball the pit deviations at the scale of Earth it would have a roughness close to that of about 180 to 220 grit sandpaper. Not necessarily the smoothest thing I've ever touched. Basically cover a cue ball in a very thin adhesive and roll it in sand, that's what it would feel like at the scale of Earth.🤔🤔🤔🤔😱. Those pitt deviations that cause that roughness would actually be smaller than the pit deviations on Earth by a magnitude of difference between 1/100,000th of an inch or 1 micrometer to 49 micrometers meaning that Earth would be 49 times rougher than the surface of a cue ball. So a cue ball is not an accurate representation in terms of smoothness over roundness. Basically the difference between a sand covered ball and a cue ball. Still smooth but not as smooth as he's representing

[@LiIPissBaby]

I love Neil and StarTalk but he has exaggerated here a bit. Not only at the scale of the globe he is holding would NOT be the smoothest thing ever touched as he says, but even at the smaller cueball scale would still have perceivable irregularities/variance. It technically would be within tolerance of smoothness of a cueball even though it would have perceivable irregularities that a normal cueball does not have. However, it would NOT be within tolerance of being round enough. Think of it this way: The Earth has a diameter of nearly 8,000 miles. That’s about 40,000,000 feet, or 480 million inches. Let’s scale that down close to cueball size, we'll use 3 inches which is still just a bit bigger than a cueball but will make the math easier to follow and understand. So we’re scaling Earth down by a factor of 160 million. Since the highest mountains on Earth are nearly 6 miles high (about 380,000 inches), we’ll scale those down, too, also by a factor of 160 million. On this scale, Mt. Everest is about 2/1000ths of an inch high. This might just be perceivable as a tiny imperfection in the surface, but chances are you’d miss it altogether. Most of the planet is even smoother than that, with most of our planet within 1/1000th of an inch. As for the oceans, they would cover around 70% of the cue ball. You’d definitely notice this, and the water would run over your hand. How much water? Well, the ocean has a volume of about 320 million cubic miles. That’s about 8.2E22 cubic inches. Scaling this down by our factor of 160 million (in all three dimensions) gives us a scaled volume of about 0.02 cubic inches of water. This is about 6 drops of water, so you’d definitely notice it. When the water was gone, there would be grooves as deep as 3/1000ths of an inch, which you could probably feel or see if you looked very carefully. As for the ice, all of the glaciers on Earth are still significantly smaller than the oceans, but it’s almost all concentrated at the poles, so you’d feel its chill for sure. The volume of water locked up in all of the glaciers is about 1/60th of the volume of the oceans, so when melted they’d add less than a drop to the total volume of water. But it’s not a perfect sphere. It spins, and because it spins, it bulges due to centrifugal force over a long period of time. Since the Earth spins, there is a force outward that is a maximum at the equator, making the planet bulge out, like a basketball with a guy sitting on it. This type of shape is called an oblate spheroid. If you measure between the north and south poles, the Earth’s diameter is 12,713.6 km. If you measure across the Equator, it’s 12,756.2 km, a difference of about 42.6 kilometers (roughly .0033 ratio). That ratio of difference would NOT be in tolerance of roundness for a billiards ball according to the World Pool-Billiard Association. The World Pool-Billiard Association says a pool ball is 2.25 inches in diameter and has a tolerance of +/- 0.005 inches. The ratio of the size of an allowable deviation to the size of the ball is 0.005/2.25 = about 0.002. I think you would be able to feel the Mariana Trench and perhaps some of the tallest mountain ridges. On that cueball scale the depth of the Mariana Trench would be almost equal to the thickness of a typical piece of paper which doesn't sound like much, but that variance in such a small narrow area would be apparent I think, such as running your finger over the edge of a paper that is laying on another surface. and that variance would be considerably greater at the scale of the globe he is holding. It's not by a lot but it's definitely not the smoothest thing ever created or felt.

[@vietphan3201]

But where is the ice wall?

[@Yinzermakesvids]

We need you to make another show about the universe, or have more if you on how the universe works.

[@VeritechGirl]

Love that these two aren’t afraid to trigger metric snobs! 😂

[@krisnaaji5646]

I love you teori about size and smooth earth

[@5777Whatup]

This from an old episode yo gimme more new content!!! I NEED TO FEED!!!

[@goodsamaritan6401]

"This is America" but the viewers are from around the world. Lol

[@simonwerner2032]

For example Austria?

[@lloydkeaton4940]

Merica!

[@simonwerner2032]

@@lloydkeaton4940 How can you still be patroitic? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

[@vdfritzz]

that was the joke

[@eduardosalamanca3808]

@@simonwerner2032 like Egypt?

[@blop-a-blop9419]

The Earth's radius is ≈6000km. Highest mountain - bottom of the ocean ≈ 20km. That's a 1/300 factor. Comparing that to ball like the one you're holding that's ≈15cm radius, that would give us 150mm/300= 0,500mm. The depth of our Fingerprints is 50μm = 0,050mm. So If I didn't make any mistake, you're off by a factor 10. A better comparison I think would be the grain at the surface of a BasketBall.

who should I believe Vscase or Startalk

[@kevinscott7292]

Theoretically, would a fall be equally consequential no matter what planetary body's mountain you fall from? As the mountains get taller, the gravity gets weaker - do those rates cancel each other out perfectly?

[@vanrozay8871]

News to me. Thanks. You are a demonically dynamic duo, smart and fun.

[@seanperdue232]

Amazing as always!

[@0toleranz]

Being a failed black hole a neutron Star keeping the spin impulse of the former red giant and so having a very high rotation rate wouldn’t that at least compensate partially the extreme high gravitational forces, and if so how much?

[@atagkr]

I love this planet❤️

[@sleepersciscience-magicfin7098]

🌎🔭🌌👽🔭🌎 yeah, that's what I mean when I'm talking about perspective (something like this, but there is much more thoughts)

[@Yoaedn]

What about the land size of continents compared to the Globe? Are those also an exaggeration?

[@vishwasshankar3929]

Can anyone explain the examle he gave to explain the gravity of neutron stars? 8:13

[@FrankyPi]

Hypothetically, if a sheet of paper was on its surface, energy needed to lift it up to height that is equal to the thickness of the sheet itself, would be similar to amount of energy needed for a human to climb a large cliff on Earth.

[@gridhop]

Love this episode

[@ScottDincorn]

This might be a silly question, but is there a depth limit on valleys the same way there is a height limit on mountains? I get that the force of gravity acting on the mass of the mountain will keep it from being too tall, but I'm having trouble applying that to the deepness of valleys.

[@StaticBlaster]

The internal geologic activity would probably prevent too much erosion. But I don't really know. That's just my conjecture.

[@limbokidthedank8746]

I thought Neil was gonna talk about why earth looks smooth from space, the actual topic was equally interesting but I feel like I'll leave my personal theory as to why it looks smooth from space from space, lets say around the orbit of the I.S.S, you can't see the height of the mountains because from that height its kind of like looking at a piece of paper, everything from that high will just look like a 2D image wrapped around a sphere because well, when you are looking at something from above, you can't really perceive its height. On top of that we also have the many different layers of the atmosphere covering the earth with clouds and whatnot which might obstruct viewing

[@dumpsterG]

If gravity wants to pull everything towards the centre , how does it determine/know where the centre is? @StarTalk

[@frequencydecline5250]

It's has the most density. It doesn't have to "know" where the center is because the center forms around the most dense part which then becomes the center. Everything has a gravity to it. Planets form when material in space starts clump together. Because all those bits of material have a gravity and attract to each other. After a while it has enough stuff asa whole to have a lot of gravity.

[@michaelconnaireoates5344]

Yay I can see my country from here

[@AliMohebali.]

Chuck is the best :)

[@TwinsenR]

Exactly what I needed to finish cooking, winding down now, lol.

[@galesx95]

so you are blowing air down onto you food to avoid being overcooked?

[@erickutepow]

The Marianna Trench is off the coast of The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianna Islands.

[@colewelden]

Michael stevens of Vsause has. a great video on this topic. In said video he shares that the entirety of the earth is smoother than a pancake relatively speaking. Interesting stuff.

[@sergiotc78]

Poor Chuck has to play " Timmy" on Neil's show.

[@arimfshapiro7907]

I love Dr. Tyson.

[@iszslayermaxx9912]

I've seen a video showing the amount of water on earth if earth was the size of a globe and it was surprisingly small. I think it was just a few drops. Is this correct?

[@earnestbrown6524]

0:28 In the anime "Planetes" there is Nono a 12 year old "Lunarian", one of the first born and has lived her whole life on the Moon. She has a great line in the show about how see has never seen a country before. She likes sneaking out and looking at the Earth, but she doesn't want to live there just visit it once.

[@welkinator]

Neil - I learned this from Bucky Fuller in person when you were still a teenager. Everything old is new .... again.

[@bernardloveland8802]

Rocky Mountain region! My area , Denver Colorado

Cosmic perspective. Perspectiva cósmica

[@terrysullivan1992]

What is the theoretical maximum height of a mountain on earth ? Thing is weathering continually wares them down. How high would Everest be if there had been no weathering ?

[@abuaseel01]

The information in this video is certainly interesting and thank you for it, but I feel like Neil missed the point of exaggerating mountains on a globe, it's not ment to deceive people, but to better help people find where these geographic landmarks are on a map, it provides a different experience.

[@galesx95]

sounds to me like marketing

[@johan.ohgren]

Not intentionally, but that's the effect. Because people in general don't have that knowledge, so they take the map as the truth.

[@clearwater1231]

So are rocks like fluid/liquid?

[@ewakonopko9258]

I live in Anerica but Im stil with metric system.Love those videos always informative and fun!

[@angryxinch8812]

A question for Neil: Since black holes lose their mass via Hawking radiation, what happens when the black hole has lost enough of its mass that it no longer has the gravity to keep light from escaping? What does it become at that point, a Neutron star? What would it look like?

[@DearHRS]

At first glance it may feel like it should become neutron star but we don't know what would have happened with the material at that point, and hawking radiation is very slow, so we might not even get chance to see before heat death

[@PolluxPavonis]

Is not about gravity, is about density, and that remains constant until the end, when they just explode in a burst of pure energy, according to Hawking theory.

[@BLKGURL_GOLDMOUFMISSES]

Makes sense 🤷🏾‍♀️

[@SerDunk]

Dr. Tyson dropping science bombs

[@LiIPissBaby]

I love Neil and StarTalk but he has exaggerated here a bit. Not only at the scale of the globe he is holding would NOT be the smoothest thing ever touched as he says, but even at the smaller cueball scale would still have perceivable irregularities/variance. It technically would be within tolerance of smoothness of a cueball even though it would have perceivable irregularities that a normal cueball does not have. However, it would NOT be within tolerance of being round enough. Think of it this way: The Earth has a diameter of nearly 8,000 miles. That’s about 40,000,000 feet, or 480 million inches. Let’s scale that down close to cueball size, we'll use 3 inches which is still just a bit bigger than a cueball but will make the math easier to follow and understand. So we’re scaling Earth down by a factor of 160 million. Since the highest mountains on Earth are nearly 6 miles high (about 380,000 inches), we’ll scale those down, too, also by a factor of 160 million. On this scale, Mt. Everest is about 2/1000ths of an inch high. This might just be perceivable as a tiny imperfection in the surface, but chances are you’d miss it altogether. Most of the planet is even smoother than that, with most of our planet within 1/1000th of an inch. As for the oceans, they would cover around 70% of the cue ball. You’d definitely notice this, and the water would run over your hand. How much water? Well, the ocean has a volume of about 320 million cubic miles. That’s about 8.2E22 cubic inches. Scaling this down by our factor of 160 million (in all three dimensions) gives us a scaled volume of about 0.02 cubic inches of water. This is about 6 drops of water, so you’d definitely notice it. When the water was gone, there would be grooves as deep as 3/1000ths of an inch, which you could probably feel or see if you looked very carefully. As for the ice, all of the glaciers on Earth are still significantly smaller than the oceans, but it’s almost all concentrated at the poles, so you’d feel its chill for sure. The volume of water locked up in all of the glaciers is about 1/60th of the volume of the oceans, so when melted they’d add less than a drop to the total volume of water. But it’s not a perfect sphere. It spins, and because it spins, it bulges due to centrifugal force over a long period of time. Since the Earth spins, there is a force outward that is a maximum at the equator, making the planet bulge out, like a basketball with a guy sitting on it. This type of shape is called an oblate spheroid. If you measure between the north and south poles, the Earth’s diameter is 12,713.6 km. If you measure across the Equator, it’s 12,756.2 km, a difference of about 42.6 kilometers (roughly .0033 ratio). That ratio of difference would NOT be in tolerance of roundness for a billiards ball according to the World Pool-Billiard Association. The World Pool-Billiard Association says a pool ball is 2.25 inches in diameter and has a tolerance of +/- 0.005 inches. The ratio of the size of an allowable deviation to the size of the ball is 0.005/2.25 = about 0.002. I think you would be able to feel the Mariana Trench and perhaps some of the tallest mountain ridges. On that cueball scale the depth of the Mariana Trench would be almost equal to the thickness of a typical piece of paper which doesn't sound like much, but that variance in such a small narrow area would be apparent I think, such as running your finger over the edge of a paper that is laying on another surface. and that variance would be considerably greater at the scale of the globe he is holding. It's not by a lot but it's definitely not the smoothest thing ever created or felt.

[@mugensamurai]

This is like Sesame Street for adults.

[@RDD87z]

when does gravity start to work. i mean. after what mass it starts to attract objects?

[@AJeazy]

Hey I'll do a little math for you guys. I'm gonna just assume the ball is close to a little over a foot in diameter so let's just go with 3.5 feet in circumference. If you put everest on a globe this high it would be around 233 micrometers high which is like 4-5 fingerprint depths.

[@kokotinatoto]

so whats the limit for trenches being deep? is it antigravity? pls pls

[@puig031]

So what is the height limit on Earth for a mountain?

[@supreetkumar7604]

It's smooth relative to a VERY BIG hand. NOT for tiny hands that we have.

[@robertulloa9570]

Mr. Neil deGrasse, with all due respect, Mount Everest is about 29,000 or 29,029 feet above sea level....just saying. Love your work! Take care.

[@Singe2theside]

Interesting fact. If the smoothest sphere ever machined was enlarged to the size of the earth. From the highest point to the lowest point, it would only vary 14m

[@lewisner]

There was a great episode of the 1970 TV series "UFO" where the Earth organisation SHADO developed a spacecraft capable of following a UFO back to its home planet and taking photos from orbit. Several months later the photos transmit back but the head of research tells SHADO "they are useless". It turned out a malfunction meant the range and magnification weren't recorded so they didn't know whether they were looking at the surface of the planet or a speck of dust on the lens. I bet NDT would like that show.

[@varunmehta5627]

04:22 I was not expecting a personal attack.

[@KaldorDraigo1]

Hey awesome video, as always, but i have an off topic question if i may.. Is it true that the Moon is somehow contribute to Earths longevity?? Thanks in advance , much love ♥

[@MaegnasMw]

Not sure what you mean by "longevity". If you mean that the Earth still exists because of the Moon, then no. If you mean the Moon somehow protects the surface of the Earth from collisions and thus provides a calmer environment in which life can prosper, then yes. Also, the Moon, being there and effecting the tides on Earth, has slowed down the rate of rotation of the Earth down, from a projected 6 hrs day to the 24 hrs day we have today (all it took was our oceans and about 4 billion years! ;-)) P.S. Forgot to mention, the Moon also stabilizes the angle of the ecliptic to 23 degrees and thus provides us with the seasons we know and love.

[@KaldorDraigo1]

@@MaegnasMw Τhen its does.. hehe I think i was refering to the angle but pretty much u said it all so... :D Thank you for your time and effort :)

[@MaegnasMw]

@@KaldorDraigo1 κανένα πρόβλημα ;-)

[@KaldorDraigo1]

@@MaegnasMw ♥