I remember reading a long time ago about how the Earth’s smoothness was comparable to a billiards ball. That fact always blew my mind, especially given how much 2D elevation maps and globes tend to exaggerate elevation.
I tried to visualize this “expectation vs. reality” using a 3D globe. The globe currently only shows elevation on land masses, but I’d love to expand it in the future to show variation in the oceans (e.g. the depth of the Mariana Trench).
Fibbing with elevation is never-ending problem. Nice viz!
You would be better off showing a shaded counter map of local slopes having subtracted out a sphere of appropriate size.
I’d love to see a red dotted perfect circle so you can judge the relative elevation changes vs. the oblate shape of the glove relative to a perfect sphere.
Earth is incredibly smooth. It’s hard to comprehend just how large the Earth really is
![[OC] How Smooth Is The Earth, Really? Explore Elevation With An Interactive 3D Globe](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/3sqvun25nfkd1.gif)
5 comments
Live link to interactive visual and writeup: https://perthirtysix.com/tool/earth-smoothness
I remember reading a long time ago about how the Earth’s smoothness was comparable to a billiards ball. That fact always blew my mind, especially given how much 2D elevation maps and globes tend to exaggerate elevation.
I tried to visualize this “expectation vs. reality” using a 3D globe. The globe currently only shows elevation on land masses, but I’d love to expand it in the future to show variation in the oceans (e.g. the depth of the Mariana Trench).
I hope you find it interesting!
Built using Three.js with data from [Copernicus Digital Elevation Model](https://spacedata.copernicus.eu/collections/copernicus-digital-elevation-model)
Fibbing with elevation is never-ending problem. Nice viz!
You would be better off showing a shaded counter map of local slopes having subtracted out a sphere of appropriate size.
I’d love to see a red dotted perfect circle so you can judge the relative elevation changes vs. the oblate shape of the glove relative to a perfect sphere.
Earth is incredibly smooth. It’s hard to comprehend just how large the Earth really is