By voyages and journeys " round the world.

"'
2. By the measurement of arcs of great circles.
3. By the fact that the horizon when viewed from a high point rising above
a level plain, as from a tower or the summit of a hill, is always circular, a
property belonging only to spherical bodies.
The Earth an Oblate Spheroid.
The particles of a rotating
body tend to fly off in straight lines. This tendency is called
centrifugal force.
Gravitation tends to
make a mass spherical. These two
forces combined
have caused the
earth, which is somewhat plastic and
elastic, to assume a
slightly flattened
spherical form called
an oblate spheroid.
Its longest diameter
is nearly 7927 miles
and its shortest diameter nearly 7900
miles. Its greatest
circumference is
about 24,900 miles,
its smallest circumference about 24,860
miles, and the area of
its surface 197 millions of square miles.

Diagram for demonstrating the Spheroidal

Form of the Earth
The horizon when viewed from a high point, A, B, or C,
is a circle

The oblateness of the earth is shown by the fact that although the weight
of a body on its surface is nearly constant, it is slightly greater in high
latitudes.

DENSITY OF THE EARTH

21

Density of the
Earth.
The exterior
is the only part of the
earth concerning
which we have definite
knowledge. Here we
encounter matter in
its three forms : the
gaseous, represented
by the atmosphere ;
the liquid, represented
by the hydrosphere,
or water areas ; and
the solid, represented
by the lithosphere,
or "crust." These
spheres are arranged
in the order of their
densities, and although
the air and water are
often spoken of as the
earth's coverings, they
are as much of the
planet as the lithosphere.
On account of pressure each of these
spheres should become
denser in the direction
toward the center of
the earth. The bottom of the atmosphere,
especially that part
resting on the sea, is
densest, as it is compressed by the weight

JUPITER

SATURN

NEPTUNE

URANUS

^ EARTH
@ VENUS

The Planets arranged according to Size

MARS
Q MERCURY

22

THE SHAPE, SIZE, AND DENSITY OF THE EARTH

of the air above it. Similarly, the water in the deepest parts
of the sea should be densest, but water is practically a noncompressible medium. It does not seem unreasonable that the
materials constituting the Hthosphere should increase in density

Section of the Earth

A, atmosphere ; B, hydrosphere ; C, lithosphere ; N, nucleus.
toward the earth's nucleus or centrosphere, which must be the
densest part of all. That such is the fact appears to be proved
by numerous experiments which go to show that while the
density of the outer portion of the lithosphere is about 2.5,
that of the lithosphere and nucleus together is not far from 5.5.

III. THE MOTIONS OF THE EARTH

Effects of the Earth's Motions.
The earth has two motions
which greatly influence all things living upon it, whether animals
or plants. The first is a daily motion, or rotation on its axis,
by which there is produced an alternation of light and darkness
called day and night. The second is a yearly motion, or revolution about the sun, by which seasonal changes are produced and
the many consequences flowing from them.
Meridians. When the sun reaches its highest point for the
day, the shadow cast by a plumb line extends north and south.
Hence north-and-south lines are called meridians, or midday
lines. All meridians when produced meet at the ends of the
earth's axis, called the poles. The meridian of any place can
be determined roughly by means of a vertical rod on a level
table. Beginning about half an hour before midday, mark
at intervals of two minutes the end of the shadow cast by the
rod till the shadow lengthens. The line from the end of the
shortest shadow to the base of the rod points north and south
and lies in the meridian of the place.