Myth and Truth: Misconceptions about Planet Earth

If you look at the Earth from afar, say, from space, then it will seem perfectly round. However, if we, having taken the shape of the Earth as an ideal ball, begin to make accurate measurements of the coordinates of points on its surface, then we will not succeed. This is because the shape of the Earth is different from a ball, approaching an ellipsoid

This happens only up to a certain point, after which the atmosphere begins to literally “fever”. The Earth's atmosphere is conditionally divided into several layers with different physical and chemical properties. With increasing altitude, the temperature first falls, then rises, then falls again and rises again. The temperature drops evenly to a height of 11 km (by 6,5 °C per 1 km) and at this altitude it is –56,6 °C.

Further, in the 11–25 km layer, a slight change in temperature is characteristic, but in the 25–40 km layer, the temperature rises from −56,5 to +0,8 °С. At an altitude of about 40 km, the temperature is about 0 °C, up to an altitude of about 55 km it remains constant.

Further, the temperature decreases with height by 0,25–0,3 °C per 100 m. At an altitude of about 90 km, the temperature is –90 °C. This is the lowest figure in the vertical temperature distribution.

Above 90 km, the temperature rises to altitudes of 200–300 km, where it reaches values ​​of the order of 1500 K (approximately +1226 °C), after which it remains almost constant up to high altitudes

In fact, gravity decreases with depth, and weightlessness reigns in the center of the planet. However, all calculations are correct if we take the planet as an ideal ball and if the substance in the entire volume has the same density. However, there are seals and voids in the earth's crust, and the mantle of our planet is also not uniform everywhere, so weightlessness should be observed not in the geometric center of the Earth, but somewhere away from it – where the center of gravity of the planet is located

The Earth's climate is entirely determined by the angle of inclination of the axis of rotation, but by no means by moving away or approaching the Sun. This circumstance, by the way, is displayed in the very word "climate": in Greek klimatos means "tilt"

There are different concepts of the day. Astronomers distinguish solar and sidereal days. True solar days cannot be considered an example of constancy: during the year they periodically lengthen and shorten for some time.

A solar day (that is, an ordinary day) is the period of time during which the Earth makes 1 rotation around its axis relative to the Sun. A solar day is not equal to the period of rotation of the Earth around its axis. Due to the revolution of the Earth around the Sun, the latter (the Sun) every day takes a slightly different position in the celestial sphere.

The exact period of the Earth's rotation can be measured by taking any "fixed star" as a reference point. Such a period is called a sidereal day, which is 3 minutes 56 seconds shorter than the average solar day

Great Wall of China almost impossible to see from space with the naked eye. To capture it from the International Space Station, you need to know exactly the time of flight over the object and use a telescope.

It should be noted that the runways of international airports and the famous Pyramids of Egypt on the background of the sands, on the contrary, are relatively easily distinguishable

In fact, the "driest place" is determined by the annual amount of precipitation that falls in the area. Then this title rightfully deserves... Antarctica! There are three unique valleys on the mainland that have not had rain or snow for at least two million years!

Read more about the driest places on our planet in our article "Where is the driest place on earth?"

It turns out that this is not a completely true statement. Yes, green plants do produce oxygen for our atmosphere. During photosynthesis, they take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. But forests do not play the only and far from the main role in this process. As it turned out, the main producer of useful oxygen on the planet is algae living in the seas and oceans – the so-called phytoplankton.

Read more about this in our article "Which plants produce most of the oxygen in the world?"

Why do people believe it? It's all about the so-called Coriolis forces, described in 1833 by the French mathematician Gustav Coriolis. It is under the influence of these forces that water (as well as air) acquires rotational motion, that is, it twists into funnels. The Coriolis forces lead to the fact that in the Northern Hemisphere the rivers wash away the right banks, and in the Southern – the left.

However, in conventional sinks, the direction of twisting of the water funnel depends on the shape of the sink, the diameter of the pipe, random effects on the water, etc., and not on the Coriolis forces. In other words, on a scale as small as a washbasin, the Coriolis forces don't work