why we don't fall from earth,although it round?
604595
Come on, everybody, give this poor person a break! That's nasty, to suggest that the asker is stupid! \n\nThose who said it is because of gravity are basically right. The Earth pulls everything toward it. We pull the earth toward us, as well, but the earth is larger and pulls us harder. Do you ever watch the Moon in the sky as it goes around the earth? The moon drags the oceans back and forth. The moon is not big enough to drag the oceans away from the earth, because the earth is bigger and pulls them harder. So the oceans stay on earth. But the moon causes the tides to go back and forth. If you are interested in these thing, you can learn more about them by studying physics. Good luck!
224099
It's not that strange, why would you expect the Earth's orbit to be a perfect circle.\n\nEverything revolve in a elliptical orbit, because they can't all start moving in perfect circles, that's impossible, so when Earth got closer to the Sun, it basically falls and accelerates because of gravity, but because it's now faster, it can bypass the Sun so it won't crash into it.
1059599
just like the other guys. \nit will not fall down because there is no down and up in space. it has a very low gravity that you cannot feel. \nhere in earth we say up because when you look up its up and when you look down its down but is that really the thing that is happening. no. We say down, towards the earths center because, relatively to the earth down is the center of the earth where, also, the earth's center of gravity.\na good example of this is, picture yourself in the north pole. you looked down. imagine the earth is transparent. now picture someone in the antartica looking down also. it is like looking at a mirror. Who is down and who is up? Make sense???\nUp, down, etc... are relevant to attraction or gravity if it is in earth.\nfrom the first law F=m1*m2/d.\nwhen a man fall in a building he isattracted to the earth's gravitational pull, towards the earth's center. So relatively to the audience seeing the man's fall. we can say he is falling down but in fact he is being attracted to the earth's center.
170908
There are two forces involved to keep a satellite from falling down. First, GRAVITY is constantly trying to pull the satellite down, but at the same time the satellite's speed is trying to hurl it off into space--CENTRIPETAL force. As long as both forces are exactly balanced, the satellite won't fall down.
436928
If the Earth's radius were bigger, and the mass of it stayed the same, then you would weigh lighter.  That's because with a bigger radius, you're farther away from the centre of gravity, therefore less pull.  If the mass change, then the situation would be different.
44602
Why are any of the planets round?
281335
The law you are referring to is the law of inertia, which is directly related to the laws of gravity.  The heat from the sun and it's gravitational pull are what "make the earth go round"
955624
If it wasn't for gravity, there would be no earth.  (Gravity holds the earth together.)  \n\nThe very notion of "up" and "down" *needs* gravity, or it has no meaning.  The very notion of "down" has always meant,  "in the direction of gravity", even before we knew what gravity was.  If you are in a room with no windows, how do you know which way is "down"?  Because "down" is THE DIRECTION THAT THINGS FALL.  When you stand up, it's THE DIRECTION OF YOUR FEET.  Without gravity, there is no notion of falling, and no notion of "standing up" so "down" (and "up") have no meaning.  Think of astronauts in a room with no windows on the Space Station.  They have no "up" or "down". \n\nOr think of it another way.  The notion of "up" and "down" has less to do with the direction of the earth, as with the direction of gravity.  If you are standing on the moon, or on mars, which way is "down"?  It will be in the direction things fall ... towards the planet you are standing on.  So "down" is defined relative to the current direction of gravity, regardless of what is causing that gravity.\n\nSo the earth has no "up" and "down" except with respect to gravity.  It also has no "top" or "bottom" ... the North Pole is not the top of the earth.  We just like to make maps that way, but there's no scientific reason for it.    (The Egyptions drew maps relative to the Nile river ... so the "upper Nile" is South, and the "lower Nile" is North.)
1076161
An object orbiting another in space can be considered to be in freefall around the center object.  You have probably heard someone explaining circular motion like that of an astronaut or space station or the moon as being in freefall towards the earth.  It's a balancing act between the gravity between the two objects (causing the free fall) and the inertia of the planets, moons, satelites, etc that keep them moving in a direction perpinduclar to the inward falling direction.  \n\nEventualy the orbiting object will have to fall toward the center object or away from it, debending on whether the inertia or the gravity is stronger.  \n\nOur moon is moving away from us.\n\nAll the stars in the galaxy are moving around the center of the galaxy and all the galaxies are moving around the center of the universe but we will never fall in because not only is the universe still expanding, the rate at which all the galaxies are moving away from the center of the universe is getting faster.
25445
The earth is APPROXIMATELY round due to gravitational forces.
9991
To a first-order approximation the Earth is round.  This\nis due to gravity.  Gravity pulls with equal strength in all\ndirections; therefore any variations from a spherical\nshape will lead to gravitational forces that\nbring the shape back into that of a sphere.\n \nThis is without considering the rotation of the earth,\nhowever.  The rotation of the earth adds centrifugal\neffects, which cause the earth to bulge slightly at\nits equator and flatten slightly at its poles.\n(This is like twirling a rock on the end of a string\nand then letting go--the rock flies away from the\ntwirler.)  Because of these centrifugal effects, the\ndistance from the center of the earth to the surface\nof the earth is about 0.33% shorter at the poles\ncompared to the equator.
374485
you wont stop "falling" once you got to the ceter of the earth, but by that time you would have a bunch of speed. gravity woulnd't overcome this speed until you got almost all the way to the other side of earth - the whole way assuming earth is a perfect sphere and there is no air resistance. you would basically be a pendulum going back and forth - a pendulum or a swing stops falling in the middle but keeps going because it still has speed. air resitance would eventually slow you down until you want shorter and shorter distances and wound up in the center of the earth, then you would have to climb out. if you were smart, you would grab onto the wall the first time you reached the other side, and climb out only a short distance.\n\nalso the first guy is wrong and the 4th one is right, gravity decreases when you go into the earth - it is strongest right on the surface.
1041594
Things that are orbiting our planet are in a state of constant "free fall". That is why they appear to be weightless. The force of gravity is still very high on the astronaut.
792195
Interesting question.  You can extend it - why does the Earth continue to turn on its axis?  And circle the sun?  Why does the sun circle the center of the galaxy?  Why do things keep going, year after year for billions and billions of years?\n\nNewton thought about this and came up with one of his famous laws:  Without an external force, a body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest stays at rest.\n\nThe second half is easy.  Put a rock on the floor and it will stay there forever until you pick it up.  It won't move without an external force.  So what if you shoot a bullet into the air.  We all know it falls back, but why?  Because the force of gravity acts on it.  Take away gravity and it will still stop.  Why?  Because the friction of air on the bullet's surface will slow it down and finally stop it.  Take away air, take away gravity, and the bullet will go on forever.\n\nSo to answer your question:  Simply put, the asteroids have no forces to stop them.  Gravity keeps them trapped around the sun, but they outside of the range where they fall in, so they simply continue to go around, just like the planets such as Earth.  The asteroids started in motion at the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago, and except for random collisions that altered courses and accelerated (or decelerated) the rocks, no force has acted on them to slow them down.  A perfect example of Newton's law, even more amazing because Newton did not know of the existence of asteroids.
1037132
Well, you need to take more than one law into account.  There's also the law of inertia; that an object in motion tends to stay in motion along a straight line unless another force acts on it.  In the earth's case, that other force is the sun's gravity.  As a result of the earth's own intrinsic motion and the sun's gravitational pull, the earth continues to orbit around the sun (though the sun is winning out, veeeerrrry slowly).  To disturb that equilibrium, you'd need a very large mass and/or a very high speed to overcome earth's inertia enough to knock it out of orbit.  While the impact of asteroids do have *some* effect, because asteroids come from every direction their cumulative effect evens out.  \n\nAn analogy would be walking outside on a windy day.  Normally, if there's no wind or an occasional breeze, it doesn't affect you much.  But if there's a strong wind coming from one direction then you get pushed by it, and a really strong gust can knock you over.
351775
People knew the Earth was round for as long as there were sailors; it's a common myth that they thought they'd fall off the edge of the world when sea-fairing folks could easily see ships slowly descend over the horizon rather than suddenly just plain vanishing.\n\nIt's really just a straw man arguement that's really taken on a life of its own. Don't buy into it, even if our educational system even falls for it on Christopher Columbus day. *L*
457303
Imagine a beach ball with two ladybugs on it, at opposite sides.  Hold your imaginary ball in front of you with one bug at the top and one at the bottom.  It does in fact appear that one bug is upside down to you.  Now hold the ball upside down.  You can't, because it is round, though the location of the bugs gives you an appearance of "upside down".  Taking the same application where Earth is now the beach ball and we are the ladybugs, gravity holds us to the Earth standing upright.  The apearance of "upside down" would occur if you could view a cut away, but you know now that you cannot turn the earth upside down in reality because of it's shape.