The Earth is lumpier than you think

And it's because sea level isn't so level.
We covered the geoid and how to measure sea level in a longer video about Mt. Everest's height, here:
• Why Mount Everest's he...
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[@MLBfreek35]

"images like this are exaggerated" right at the end, are you fugging kidding me

[@Aerostarm]

Exactly my thought

[@leomarwanson8136]

Really ridiculouse

[@d0uble_O]

😂 Vox for ya..bending the truth to make it POP.

[@Souledex]

It’s literally rounder than a cue ball. It’s very very round

[@Leato-a]

​@@d0uble_O I don't get it, why are you guys upset? exaggeration its a term we use on maps of this kind, that better shows something for learning purposes.

[@lucasl.s.7831]

"its true shape looks like this"... and then proceeds to say that the image shown "was exaggerated" I love Vox but this video is a disaster

[@the_koschi]

I agree, confusing. The shape is different, but still it LOOKS perfectly spherical.

[@5frogfrenzy]

Its a clip from a longer video

[@ahsoka_polo]

​@@the_koschi That is because of the atmosphere.

[@the_koschi]

@@ahsoka_polo No, it isn't. :-)

[@karmafox508]

Amen to that

[@siamesestormtrooper]

First, while it should have been pretty obvious that was an exaggerated map, you should always qualify your graphics when you first introduce them to not cause confusion, ESPECIALLY if you’re going to outright say “This is what it’s true shape looks like”

[@pbilk]

They were correct, the shape was still correct. It was just exaggerated version of the same shape. But yes, that could have been stated when presenting the shape.

[@Aerostarm]

So actually it’s completely round like I thought in the first place?

[@patrickcollins8048]

My thoughts exactly 😂

[@Zebercettin]

No, it is not a sphere. It is a Geoid.

[@Sulzaari]

irregularly shaped ellipsoid

[@patrickcollins8048]

@@Zebercettin an oblate spheroid

[@Zebercettin]

@@patrickcollins8048 Yeah, exactly

[@youtubersdigest]

“The earth is smoother than the smoothest cue ball ever” -Neil Degrasse Tyson Those images were VASTLY exaggerated

[@playtimeplay4518]

I watched a vsauce vid that said earth is rougher than a cue ball despite popular belief

[@abinvarkey2331]

​@@playtimeplay4518yea I also recall him saying it's rounder than a cue ball but not smoother

[@geekdiggy]

so in other words it's a perfectly round sphere like you said at the beginning. thanks.

[@SamyasaSwi]

But it's not. Only to the naked eye

[@kruks]

You misused the words "perfect" and "sphere". Even if the Earth were perfectly smooth (it isn't), it is in fact an ellipsoid thanks to the rotation of the Earth causing a slight depression at the rotational axes.

[@pedronunes3063]

​@@SamyasaSwiYes, but obviously the earth is not a perfect sphere with 0 imperfections source: mountains exist

[@SamyasaSwi]

@@pedronunes3063 that's what I said

[@pedronunes3063]

@@SamyasaSwi nvm then

[@the_koschi]

In times of misinformation, why do you say things so confusingly, Vox? You show a STRONG exaggeration while saying this is „its true shape“ and write „Earth is lumpier than you think“ and people WILL understand „Earth looks different than it looks“, no matter if that makes sense or not. Because how should it look different than how it looks from space? Its true shape looks like it looks from space! 😂 For anyone wondering, and I don‘t blame you: The Earth of course LOOKS and IS almost perfectly spherically from far away. Contrary to what you maybe understand in the video, the mountains and bulge from rotation are relatively TINY, as you see from space. What they wanted to say is: „It looks from space as if the Earth is actually a PERFECT sphere, but its true SHAPE is a NON-PERFECT geoid that is almost UNDISTINGUISHABLE from a perfect sphere when you are far away. To see difference between perfect sphere and geoid, we exaggerate the differences extremely. The Earth is NOT lumpier than you think, it is as lumpy as it looks from space when you are far away, and as lumpy as you think when you as a tiny human tries to climb a mountain.“ 😅

[@Goat_Eye]

Relative to a billard ball, earth is smoother

[@ECAPS.]

Show you how huge the earth is, even with all of its bumps and dips

[@playtimeplay4518]

a vsauce vid actually says a billard ball is smoother

[@FirstnameLastname-jd4uq]

⁠@@playtimeplay4518in the video he says that the number is how elliptical the ball can be, not how smooth the surface can get

[@cantthinkofnameyeah7249]

Well that was a waste of time

[@HingleMcCringle35]

This was frustratingly moronic

[@KlerikerNero]

Didn't Neil de Grasse say the opposite is the case? That the earth is smother than the roundest object we can shape.

[@pilotguy5075]

I think he said earth was smoother than a snooker ball. So yes, for all intents and purposes it is round.

[@skyrimisprettycool]

He said that the earth, if shrunk down to the size of a cue ball, it would be smoother than the smoothest cue ball ever.

[@timothy098-b4f]

Exactly right. If the earth was shrunk to the size of a basketball, the tallest mountains would stick out by less than the thickness of a piece of paper. Everest is 6 miles high, compared to a diameter of 8000 miles.

[@RudyOMP]

Yes the earth is very smooth relative to its size. This video is a poor attempt at explaining the geoid. At the end she says ‘images like these are exaggerated’

[@SamyasaSwi]

When shrunken down to the same size.

[@gr33nl4nt3rn]

"The Earth is lumpier than you think".... *Right at the end of short* "Images like this are exaggerated" So it's not lumpier. Got it.

[@Dramat1c_Irony]

Love the blatant misinformatipn until the very end. Really heightens credibility. 👍

[@SamyasaSwi]

What misinformation?

[@Hstat910]

@@SamyasaSwithey fail to mention until the end that the image shown for most of the video is highly exaggerated in scale. It is just to help with understanding, but in reality it is completely unnoticeable at a global scale

[@SamyasaSwi]

@@Hstat910 I wouldn't call that misinformation. But okay

[@Hstat910]

@@SamyasaSwi I mean I didn’t say it was misinformation I was just answering your question

[@SamyasaSwi]

@@Hstat910 oh sorry you're not the OP.

[@brandonbaker8888]

If a billiard ball were the size of earth it would be more lumpy and rigid than the earth itself. Don’t get wrapped up into the belief that earth is this lumpy, the map shown in this video is not a good representation of how smooth the earth truly is.

[@EvanHodson]

Geoid is a map of earths gravity, not its surface

[@samikshagoyal7707]

Ancient Indians called geography as Bhoogol (Bhoo means earth and Gol means round) 🙏❤️🕉️

[@orik967]

The geoid is actually a very interesting thing to look into, but the setup for this video doesn't do it any good

[@daniilfantom6552]

So basically it's a perfect sphere with deviations of some +0.11...-0.24 percent (if we take the polar and equatiorial radius), which if used by something of a size like a 10 cm ball would give the difference between the big and the small axis of around a diameter of human hair. So the conclusion - nice animations, little to no informative value.

[@leonardokotekselistreosorio]

This is how misinformation is spread. Do better vox

[@winter3960]

In reality the earth is actually smoother than the smoothest ball we could ever make. Yes there is in theory a 14km height difference between Mount Everest and the Mariana's Trench but the distance between them is so big nobody would notice. (This is according to Neil DeGrasse Tyson)

[@kruks]

This is a so-called "fact" because it's near enough to be true to be elucidating, but in reality the mountains of Earth are a greater deviation than the imperfections of a well engineered billiard ball. Even the roundness is close. Where you are way off and are misquoting Neil Degrasse Tyson is that he never said smoother than anything we could make. There are objects made in labs (not for cue sports) that are far smoother than Earth could ever be, including the Heason Technology's 5-axis manipulator. Tyson only ever spoke of a cue ball (and didn't have his cue ball statistics exactly right).

[@abd1x7]

It's not exaggerated It's very very exaggerated

[@MaulanaMalik-fd5ew]

average mountain height 3km average sea depth 3km earth diameter 12000k so 6:6000 would looks sooooo smooth

[@doitdevin]

Neil said it is the smoothest cue ball.

[@TheDukeOfWaltham]

Lots of people have gone to the trouble of writing "it's actually pretty smooth if you shrink it down" or "proportionally, it's rounder than a billiard ball"… But it is in fact planet-sized, and it's useful to know that, at our own human scale, Earth is not perfectly round and sea level can vary as much as 100 metres. It's not as bad as it would be if we lived on the surface of a gigantic billiard ball, but it's still notable.

[@MM-24]

No, earth is perfectly round What's a 100m in size difference , for something that's a few million meters in diameter So at every scale, the earth is perfectly round , that little difference is miniscule

[@FirstnameLastname-jd4uq]

@@MM-24it’s better to say “almost perfect”

[@plap.]

The mountains are so low in comparison to the entire planet that earth is actually as smooth as a que ball

[@MrBeiragua]

"it's true shape", proceeds to show a wrong shape. DATA VISUALIZATION is not the "true shape" of things, it's a mathematical trick to see small things better.

[@AnkitSingh-fs2sl]

Finding unnecessary topics isn't gonna work Vox. Anyway I love your other videos.

[@mvache]

Its true shape is something like this... Images like this are exaggerated ...😢

[@hanoian1088]

This graphic have a proplem. If red mean high and blue mean low, why the heck rocky mountain have the same attitude as Pacific?

[@azaria_phd]

"its true shape looks like this" No lol, its true shape is... Its true shape. That image is an exaggeration and, by definition, not its true shape.

[@ConvictedFelon2024]

_"If you took Earth -- with all of its mountains, valleys, and hills -- and shrunk it down to the size of a cue ball, it would be smoother than any cue ball ever machined."_ *~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson*

[@zacharynbd880]

👎

[@wwvm1234]

It's true shape? Vox, shame on you. Make your point without lying at the beginning. Exaggerated doesn't begin to describe your "exaggerated" example. Why lie so blatantly? You instantly made me question Vox from now on and forever. Can't take you seriously. What a pity. Desperate money grab, I suppose. Vox = Fox

[@AySz88]

Wow, did anyone else go "No schite, Sherlock" at the disclaimer at the end? Judging from these comments, well... I can't be the only one am I? Charts with one exaggerated axis are common enough, I wouldn't have thought it even necessary to mention. And now you know what the geoid is! Keep funding education, all.

[@roloruizdelvizo]

C'mon Vox. You know better that this. If you shrink the earth to the size of pool ball. It would be smoother than any pool ball ever created.

[@mrjonesyyy]

Wow. It's beyond negligible with the size of the Earth, I'm baffled by this.

[@deltawasneverhere]

This video was not a disaster. It made perfect sense. Ignore comments saying otherwise. If you think the video didn't make sense, you have learning to do x

[@CapnJigglypuff]

“Is Earth a smooth sphere?” “Well, yes… but actually no… but actually yes.”

[@Questerer]

If the world was scaled down to the size of a biljard ball and compare it to an actual biljard ball, the earth’s surface would be the smoothest out of the two. This is highly highly exaggerated and it hurts.

[@s337fm]

Yeah, this was a little bit bait-ish to Vox's normally good standards... Earth is more round than a billiard ball.

[@camiliosaadeh4354]

Neil de gresse tyson said that if earth was a ball it would be smoother than any ball ever crafted 😅 i need an explanation

[@spencerpeterson8477]

It’s actually completely round because it so massively huge. The few miles of the height Everest is absolutely nothing compared to the thousands of miles of diameter of the earth. Per Neil De Grasse it’s as smooth as a cue ball.

[@orangemage9522]

"True shape actually looks like this" eh? The Earth for all of it's variation is a smoother globe than a marble in scale.

[@willchb]

Granted, it's not a perfect sphere, but it might be a more perfect sphere than a basketball. The geoid shape in the video is extremely exaggerated.

[@quesnelle200]

The fact is that if you were a cosmic giant and you went up to earth and touched it, it would feel as smooth as a pool ball. Learned that from Neil Degrasse Tyson.

[@joelmulder]

For the love of god at least mention that the visualization is heavily exaggerated. Horrible reporting.

[@junaidakbar9623]

Yeah yeah lumpy potato.. but if you squeeze the earth mass to the size of a cue ball.. it'll be the smoother than any ball we've ever made.

[@HowlingFishProducts]

Vox go back to your social sciences. Leave the real science alone. The earth is more relatively smooth than a babys bottom.

[@karmafox508]

It should be more like a bal, heights and depts are nothing in comparison to the bigness of the earth. Imo, this video shows false info.

[@coreyede1627]

Before you confuse people, you should emphasise that this map is extremely exaggerated at the beginning of the video. I've seen people try to teach that the lumpy potato is a realistic and accurate depiction of earths shape.

[@Dhairyasd]

It’s exaggerated, like, a lot. The earth’s core is iron and nickel, far denser than the average density of the crust. All those tall mountains, deep valleys, trenches etc are part of the thin crust that is like a layer of cream floating over a glass of milk. The earth’s mass is so much more influenced by what’s under the crust, that almost nothing on the crust would influence the gravity on the surface. If it does, it’s super duper negligible.

[@dickiegoodman]

A potato 🥔 definitely not a pear 🍐 but not a blue marble either maybe cucumber 🥒

[@SurajKumar-ln8ij]

If u scale down the earth to the size of Cue ball u wouldn't notice even a slight bump in that ball.

[@darkendoceans1923]

Guys they exaggerated the images to give you a visual representation and explained why. The earth is too big to see this lumpy bulges with the human eye.

[@h84gabor6]

from space the shape of the earth looks like a perfect sphere. and thats because earth is almost a perfect sphere. the problem is, when you say it as it is, its not such a mind blowing fact for a youtube vid, isnt it

[@haykalhrp1710]

The total distance between from the deepest part of the earth to the highest peak of the earth is around 19km. Its nothing compare to the diameter of the earth

[@johnnyutah4517]

Earth is an oblate sphearoid simple 🆒 🦘 😵‍💫 ☮️ 🚀 🌊 🏄‍♂️

[@jackjensen422]

A rare L for Vox: an interesting idea that I barely was able to hear over my frustration with the presentation

[@ruchisaxena8092]

Our perfectly imperfect geoid... I love my planet❤

[@Neosilvium27]

Bruh Vox usually flies but man this crashed and burned

[@drnardwahtespeper]

yeah i don’t think that’s true. earth is an oblate spheroid. more round that a marble, measured true.

[@smarin00]

horrible misinformative video, please take it down

[@princelysnail1998]

Didn’t think I’d want to report a VOX vid for misinformation

[@daytonshuflita2201]

If you shrunk earth down to the size of a q ball it would still be smoother than a q ball

[@jerryr536]

If the earth were the size of a cue ball. It would be at least as smooth a the cue ball, if not, smoother.

[@RjWolf3000]

Is the top of mt. Everest the farthest from the center of the earth as well as the highest above sea level?

[@souravjaiswal-jr4bj]

Fun Fact: Earth is soother than a billiard ball. - N Tyson

[@DeTAYL.]

So basically Instagram vs Real Life lol

[@ethanhunt2777]

The Earth is as perfect an ellipsoid as you can get. This is false

[@riversandlakes]

Is “a perfect sphere” the same as “perfectly round sphere”? 🤭

[@omegasupreme2002]

some dumbares in the chat don't know what geoid is

[@pOpCoRn0531]

Earth is the master of filters and photoshopping.

[@Zhuk-zc8es]

I'm outraged by this video

[@brydenkim]

They say it's "oblate spheroid"

[@zapz]

Neil : smooth like cue ball Vsauce : smooth like pancake Vox : kinda like potato

[@Cherryjango]

Probably the worst video ive ever seen from vox

[@takomamadashvili360]

😃thanks for letting us see the exaggerated one

[@GodGainzz]

This video is a terrible representation.

[@TorontoLibertarian]

Calm down. They had to make it easier to see.

[@Villeimelainen]

Stop this please. I follow Vox because I trust the info you provide. This goes against that.

[@s337fm]

Perfect. First time I felt a little frustrated, if not upset, with Vox content... how sad.

[@Slimjimmyism]

The comments are on point with this video.

[@DeuceGenius]

Earth is smooth, but not a perfect sphere

[@PhartingFeeting]

Vox misinformation time

[@timothyodeyale6565]

so columbus was right...

[@phdbulet1366]

Theory. No solid proof of a globe. 😊

[@FamiIyPlayz]

"Lumpy potato" I can't😭😭

[@jackthebro6548]

Wait but Vsauce said it was smooth

[@sergeysmolin3844]

Lumpy Potato Earthers

[@PaulNightLong]

Comments are terrible, I don't understand. I can appreciate when someone is using exageration to give perspective in illustrating a point.

[@s337fm]

Let me try help you: she says something WRONG at first, saying the geoid is a more accurate image of Earth (which is false) only to contradict herself at the end. The problem is not the exhaggeration itself, the Geoid is very interesting to see in deed... and can be useful, too - but we need to be fed by good and precise information. This was pretty problematic since antiscience movements uses this confusion to spread misinformation over the topic. This turns all very bad, and even shocking coming from Vox, normally a reliable content source.

[@mjama2132]

Earth isnt a perfect sphere

[@محمدطهماسب-ر8ض]

Earth is so beautiful

[@--Fenix--]

Oblate spheroid

[@esterester7853]

Smooth as cream pie 😘

[@karendinkel9040]

Home sweet lumpy potato

[@peggygilmour8905]

Lumpy or not, we love it.

[@aaa54583]

i love you vox but what is this

[@geoffdixonsintes5167]

HAVE A GREAT SUNDAY 😊

[@ParadiseDB7]

That's not accurate

[@lightning_mcqueen_official-l3j]

fun fact: if the earth was shrunk down to the size of a que ball, it would be the smoothest que ball ever invented

[@playtimeplay4518]

vsauce actually said that's a misconception

[@lightning_mcqueen_official-l3j]

@@playtimeplay4518 and neil degrasse

[@danchrisjohn]

Take it down, Vox