Why is the earth shaped like a ball?
The Earth is nearly spherical because of gravity. As the planet formed, matter from the background of the solar system’s formation gathered together. As the matter collected, gravity attracted new matter to the locations nearest the center of mass of the newly formed clump. New matter cannot occupy the same space as the clump, so it takes up its own space. Eventually the combined matter forms a sphere, if gravity is the only effect existing when it is being brought together. In truth, other effects come in to play. In its first existance, all the matter forming Earth had an initial angular momentum. It was rotating, just like the winds of a hurricane. Not necessarily as a rigid body, but it was rotating. Because of this, Earth gets its rotation, because angular momentum is conserved. Furthest away from the axis of the rotation, it requires greater forces to enable the matter to travel in circular motion. For this reason, we are under the illusion that at the equator, the local gravitat
