Talk:Earth

A Very Special Note from the Management

Q. Should I replace this article with the words "mostly harmless" or "harmless", as per The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

A. No. Every other vandalism to this article is just that, and people who do this will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes. Share and enjoy!

---

• /Archive 1 - 2003 and earlier

Contents

1 A Very Special Note from the Management 2 Missing info 3 Humans living in orbit 4 Largest terrestrial planet 5 Temperature 6 natural satellite 7 Year length ratio not right 8 Magnetic field 9 Irrelevant 10 Question about inclination 11 Torque Comparison 12 Humans/We 13 Population Estimate 14 Surface area 15 Uranium Core 16 The first line may be incorrect: Aliens may view this article 17 Billion 18 Sol III 19 Human life outside earth 20 Artificial Satellites 21 moon navigator 22 Infobox template 23 That Image of Earth is 5 MBs... 24 Hollow Earth? 25 Social statistics in the infobox 26 New illustrations available 27 Mostly Harmless 27.1 List of people tempted to do this, who thought better of it after reading the note at the top of the page 28 Shape 29 Image vs Infobox 30 What's Going on? 31 editnote template listed for deletion 32 there are other solar systems

Missing info

How did the Earth form? What aspect of the Earth or its location do astrobiologists hypothesize as having been crucial to the development of its most idiosyncratic feature--life. How did life emerge and when. Have there been any noteworthy biological events since the appearance of the first cell? How does the emergence and history of life relate to geological and climate evolution? How often is Earth hit by asteroids? What have been the consequences? Do we expect more?

How did scientists determine the average density of the earth? - The average density is Mass divided by Volume. To find the volume you need the radius which you can find by measuring the curvature of the Earth like Eratostenes did about 230BC. Then you know the volume of the Earth (assuming it is sufficiently spherical). To measure the mass you need to know the gravitational constant which was measured sometime I believe sometime in the 18th century. You apply Newton's law for gravity (the one with inverse-square radius) and you have the mass.

How many human-made satellites are there and when did the first one (sputnik) go up? If you count every single piece of manmade debris - millions. Sputnik - October 4th 1957.

How do people study the Earth? What kind of scientists study it? What questions plague us, if any? What are predicted fates of the Earth? What about the ozone hole? What about the Kyoto protocol? What about geomagnetic reversals?168... 05:22, 17 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Humans living in orbit

Nearly all humans live on Earth: 6,327,152,352 inhabitants (November 1, 2003 est.)

Wow, that's an incredibly accurate "estimate"?? And what does it mean "nearly all humans live on Earth"?? Even those who are not on earth would not consider someplace outside earth their permanent residence. Certainly a more specific observation could be made (e.g. number of humans on average who are living in space at a given time). Revolver 01:19, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)

This issue has been raised in talk: before. Note that the very next line of the article explains what "nearly" means; "In orbit about Earth: 2 astronauts (November 28, 2003), on board the International Space Station." Whether being on board a permanently manned space station for a portion of a year counts as "living" there is apparently a matter of debate, but I believe it should count; scientists who spend the winter at the Antarctic research base are often described as "living" there for the winter, and the situation is quite analogous IMO. Bryan 01:50, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Largest terrestrial planet

User:Cantus has twice removed this statement from the intro paragraph: "the largest terrestrial planet in the solar system." I disagree with the reasons he's stated in the edit summaries (first that Jupiter's core might be larger, and then that it was "anecdotal"), and think it is a totally reasonable thing to say in the intro. Cantus, could you explain in greater detail why you think it should be removed? Bryan 04:27, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I don't think there's any credible evidence of any terrestrial planet our solar system that is larger than earth. Cantus' objections are absurd. I say if it gets removed in the future, that should be considered vandalism unless there's a damn good explanation. --P3d0 01:45, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)

Personally I'd re-phrase it to be: "largest of the inner planets in the solar system" --- but I tend to dislike the phrase "terrestrial planet" as used here in any event. To me a "terrestrial planet" is a term of science fiction and describes a planet with a breathable atmosphere. They are using a non-intuitive interpretation of the Latin root terra to equate Earth with a silicate crust. That implies that the moon is "terrestrial" (though not a "terrestrial planet"). I consider that to be counter-intuitive and the confusion caused by it to be wholly unnecessary.

Many would disagree with you on that. The term "terrestrial planet (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=terrestrial%20planet)" is a well-defined scientific term. --P3d0 01:49, Oct 1, 2004 (UTC)

I personally don't think Jupiter's core counts as a terrestial planet. The huge layer of gases around it, forming most of Jupiter's volume, makes the physical conditions on Jupiter's core completely different from those on real terrestial planets. The same goes, of course, for Saturn, Neptune and Uranus as well. 193.167.132.66 11:46, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Temperature

Bryan Derksen, where are you getting that mean temperature from? Averaging the min and max gives 258, not 282... If that average temp. was obtained thru a different method, care to mention the source? --Cantus 06:00, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I don't know the source offhand, but the mean temperature of a planet is not necessarily just the max temperature plus the min temperature divided by two; those two extreme temperatures occur under exceptional conditions at just two particular locations on Earth's surface. Averaging them and calling that the mean would be like trying to determine sea level by averaging the height of Mt. Everest and the depth of the Mariannas Trench, so I'm not surprised it differs. :) Bryan 06:21, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[1] (http://www.nineplanets.org/earth.html) has the mean temperature as 287 K, which is pretty close to the figure that was in the article. Bryan 06:28, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

natural satellite

the moon is not the only "natural satellite". E.g. the earth has captured an asteroid named Cruithne.

about mentioning the moon in a short article about earth: it's important. On this level, the earth is nothing than a planet among 9 others. The number of moons is characteristic and has to be meantioned.

No, Cruithne is not a moon of Earth; it's a co-orbital body at best. Trojan asteroids are not counted as moons of Jupiter and they're generally much more tightly bound than Cruithne is. I'm not sure what you mean about the importance of mentioning of the Moon in this article, since there's already a section all about it in here. Bryan 02:58, 8 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Cruithne and the Trojan Asteroids are not "moons" but they are satellites.

You make it sound as though there were no controversy in that statement. --P3d0 01:54, Oct 1, 2004 (UTC)

They weren't put there by human effort ergo they are not artificial (hence, "natural"). Thus the original criticism seems valid; the Moon is not Earth's only natural satellite. One could argue that the Moon is Earth's only significant natural satellite; or that it's the only satellite visible to the naked eye from the Earth's surface.JimD 19:36, 2004 Sep 26 (UTC)

In the context of Cruithne, it is also worth mentioning the recently-discovered asteroid 2002 AA29. This is an asteroid that is co-orbital with the Earth. Occasionally, this asteroid is believed to enter into a quasi-satellite state, where it orbits the Earth and Sun in a period of 1 year. This asteroid is predicted to become a quasi-satellite in 2575.

More information on 2002 AA29: Earth’s New Travelling Companion: Quasi-Satellite Discovered (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/earth_asteroid_021021.html) --B.d.mills 10:57, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Year length ratio not right

I get 365.25636 / 365.2422 ≈ 1.00003877. Fredrik (talk) 19:25, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Hmmm, that's a good point. Doing the calculation the other way around gives 365.25636 / 1.0000174 = 365.25 exactly. And likewise for the other planets: for Jupiter, 4330.595 days / 11.856523 years = 365.25 exactly.

It turns out that JPL is using a Julian year of exactly 365.25 days, which astronomers still use for ephemeris work because of the direct and simple conversion to the Julian date (which is really the fundamental way to mark a point in time in astronomy). So I edited Earth and the other planet pages to reflect this. -- Curps 20:08, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Magnetic field

The planet is big enough to have the core differentiated into a liquid outer core, which gives rise to a weak magnetic field due to the convection of its electrically conductive material, and a solid inner core.

It is generally believed that the rotation of the inner core (which is primarily composed of iron) creates the Earth's magnetic field. It is not known, exactly, why this occurs.

I think this is confusing. What is causing the magnetic field - inner or outer core? Are there two components of the field? This needs to be clarified. Paranoid 11:02, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

It is not only confusing, but it would also appear to be inaccurate since it is the rotation of the outer core that creates the magnetic field. The solid inner core has a stablizing effect, but is probably not strictly necessary to maintaining the geodynamo. I will try to correct this section. Dragons flight 16:49, Jun 23, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks. Paranoid 18:15, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Irrelevant

Most of them have reported a heightened understanding of its value and importance, reverence for human life and amazement at its beauty, not usually achieved by those living on the surface.

Does this need to be in this article? Do we even have a source for it? Edward 10:01, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I was unsure about where to place it, the Earth actually felt like the most relevant. We probably don't have a source for the "most" bit - that would be 200+ people and there wasn't a study about it, but so far I've read such things said by both space tourists, by Glenn and a couple other American astronauts and by several Russian cosmonauts as well. Some of them mentioned that these feelings are common among other spacefarers too. I think this is quite important fact, even if it sounds a bit silly and pompous. This can also be connected to the (missing?) article about Pale Blue Dot. Paranoid 12:55, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Question about inclination

Inclination of Earth's orbit is given as 0.00005 degrees. Since this is the inclination to the Ecliptic, shouldn't this be 0 by definition? If the value given is related to some other plane, shouldn't that be made clear? Thanks. Amorim Parga 04:21, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

While I can't swear as to the origin of the particular number quoted, it is common to report orbital parameters with respect to either the J1950.0 or J2000.0 reference frames. In these reference frames the plane of the ecliptic and it's orientation is given by the orbit and position of the Earth at 12:00 AM, Jan 1, 1950 or 2000 respectively. So, at the moment that the plane is defined the inclination to the ecliptic is exactly 0, but because of perturbations from other planets, we will drift away from 0 (as measured in that frame) as time passes. Presumably this is the reason that the inclination is reported to be slightly non-zero, but I don't know at what time this was calculated or with respect to what reference frame. Dragons flight 04:41, Jul 17, 2004 (UTC)

(grumble about ascending node self-deleted.) If, as I've come to suspect, it means WRT the mean plane of the orbit, then 1) meanness should be spec'd in ecliptic 2) this article should have the associated epoch included, because as the intersection of two damn near parallel planes surely the values change rapidly. 142.177.19.31 06:31, 24 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Shouldn't the entry say "Mostly harmless." ?? Just drooling. ;-)

Torque Comparison

Someone attempted to add a comparison of the torques felt on the Earth by different astronomical objects in order to explain why the moon has a stabalizing effect on the axis of the Earth. For one thing, this is rather technical information and might not fit very well into this page, but worse than that, the numbers quoted were simply very wrong. It is clear from the scale of the numbers stated that the author was merely comparing the force exerted on the Earth from various astronomical objects. However the force is not the same as the torque. The torque depends not on the total force but on the difference in the force applied to one side of the equatorial bulge rather than the other. Because it is so close, the moon has the largest gravitational gradient across the Earth of any astronomical object (followed shortly thereafter by the sun). Hence, the Moon exerts the largest torque on the Earth and that is why the moon acts to stabilizes the Earth's axial tilt.

However, other factors are also important. For example, relatively constant torques, such as from the Moon and Sun tend to cause axial precession and not nutations or axial tilts. For other planets (e.g. Mars) the total torques exerted depend more significantly on where it is in its orbit with respect to its nearest neighbors (e.g. Earth and Jupiter). It is when such time varying torques are a significant component of the total torque that one tends to promote chaotic shifts in the planet's axis.

Dragons flight 18:56, Sep 11, 2004 (UTC)

I agree that I did not take into account the variability of the torques (only the Sun and Moon apply constant torque), but that is a minor quibble --it is the very variability of these "pulse torques" that drives rotation into an eventual chaotic regime. After thinking about it some, I must admit Dragons flight is right that it is the tidal forces I should have used. It is thus right and proper to remove the erroneous sentence. It was a tad too technical anyway, and did'nt fit well with the flow of the text.

Urhixidur 03:01, 2004 Sep 12 (UTC)

Seems that the complex and as stated controversial subject of chaotic instability of Earth's axial tilt under moon should be moved to another article, maybe to axial tilt, rather than in this long general article. -Vsmith 01:49, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Humans/We

Cantus wrote: Encyclopedias are not written for aliens or animals.  So what's wrong with aliens (or animals) reading Wikipedia? — Monedula 11:55, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Population Estimate

Can we remove the specific number and round to the nearest 10,000? I'm pretty sure we haven't been able to get even that accurate as it is. Oberiko 17:10, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Round to nearest 1,000,000 IMHO. — David Remahl 20:32, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)

It's the classic distinction between accuracy vs. precision. Saying that the human population of the earth is approximately 6 billion (10^9 -- Americal billions) is accurate. Specifying a number with 8 or 9 significant digits is more precise but less accurate (as it implies a precision that is inappropriate to its scale). The fact is that the daily fluctuation in Earth's population is several thousand per day. There are thousands of births and deaths every day. I'd guess that the best precision would be on the order of 100,000 (since it's about one order of magnitude above the daily fluctuations which tend to cancel out with a slightly increasing trend that may be well documented in World population.JimD 19:47, 2004 Sep 26 (UTC)

Surface area

An anonymous user changed the surface area very slightly. I haven't done any calculations, but the change may even be within the error margin. However, I feared that this was one of the slashdot-inspired changes designed to evaluate the efficiency of Wikipedia peer review, so I'd like to find a recent supporting source for one of the numbers. However, my efforts of googling something up have been unsuccessful. Help? — David Remahl 20:32, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I can contribute some calculations. Hopefully it's good enough to assume an oblate spheroid with polar radius 6356.78km and equatorial radius 6378.14km, which are taken from our own Earth page (but which are more precise than the values listed in NASA's planetary fact sheet (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)).

First, the eccentricity is defined by:

<math>a^2 = b^2 + c^2 = b^2 + (ae)^2<math>

Solving for eccentricity e:

<math>e^2 = \frac{a^2-b^2}{a^2}<math>

<math>e \approx 0.081772<math>

Plugging into the formula for the area of an oblate spheroid (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/OblateSpheroid.html):

<math>S = 2 \pi a^2 + \pi \frac{b^2}{e} \ln(\frac{1+e}{1-e}) <math>

<math>S = 510,067,420.24374628km^2\;<math>

This is evidently the calculation performed by the anonymous editor. However, carrying it to the nearest square kilometer is excessive, since (for instance) that implies that the radius figures are accurate to the nearest centimeter (!!), and is also far beyond the accuracy of the oblate spheroid approximation. Certainly 510,067,000km² is more than enough precision. --P3d0 02:48, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)

An unimportant point regarding the surface area of the Earth: the actual surface area of the Earth is slightly smaller than the surface area as calculated from its radius. This is due to the Earth's gravitational warping of space-time, and the difference is about an acre (about half a hectare).--B.d.mills 11:06, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Uranium Core

I recently read a rather interesting article in Science News (http://www.sciencenews.org) or in New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com) about a theory that the Earth may have a Uranium core deep inside our Iron core. The main thesis of this theory is that it accounts for otherwise inexplicable levels of energy.

Unfortunately I don't have the citations at hand and I'd be reluctant to add references to this theory without some discussion of it's merits. (In any event it would be posed only as a short counterpoint paragraph to the comment about the core's putative lack of heavier elements, especially uranium.

Here's one older link: Discover, August, 2002 (http://www.discover.com/issues/aug-02/). (Normally I wouldn't consider Discover to be a compellingly credible source --- but I'm sure I read this elsewhere and was impressed with the logic of the theory).

JimD 20:11, 2004 Sep 26 (UTC)

The first line may be incorrect: Aliens may view this article

Where it says on the first line "Earth, the planet on which we live", that may be incorrect if aliens from another planet grasp satelite signals from our planet. In that case, we may offend them and they could sue Wikipedia for irrelevant information. I therefore feel we should change it to "Earth, the planet on which humans live". It's important that our information be as relevant as possible, and that is why we should change the first line.

Nonsense. Wikipedia is not written for aliens. Wikipedia is written for humans. Aliens who don't understand that must be very stupid aliens. Gerritholl 14:29, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Someone's been watching too much SciFi ;) Tom 04:23, Oct 9, 2004 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not written for aliens. But why not? What's wrong with aliens? — Monedula 06:41, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Regardless of our knowing about aliens reading this article or not, it surely would be the most factual characterisation of our home planet. I'd vote strongly for Earth, the planet on which humans live, with a correct link to an article explaining what a human is. The same should be applied to the solar system, the sun, which all should be called "our solar system", "our sun" instead. In this particular article only, of course. At least to emphasize our ability to not look at the baseline facts from the human-centric POV only. Maybe some kind of poll, ideas, anyone? Oneliner 19:52, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps a separate entry may be made for aliens to read: "Mostly Harmless".

Perhaps you should just bear in mind that fact that there's currently no evidence for past or current intelligent life or, in fact, any type of life in the Universe besides life on Earth. Wikipedia is supposed to deal with facts and established truths, not mere suggestions and controversial interpretations of incomplete data. For people keen on sharing knowledge with potential extraterrestrials, consider working in SETI. Smartech 00:59, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

But the phrase Earth, the planet on which humans live conveys a fact and an established truth, isn't it? — Monedula 07:22, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

There is a moratorium on writing for extraterrestrials, which will be lifted simply by extraterrestrials participating in editing Wikipedia. (SEWilco 05:51, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC))

How do you know they are not already? Are you SURE none of the anons are aliens editing from Area 51? Of course, they and the govt would deny it. All your base are belong to us 13:52, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Billion

I removed the word "billion" in the second most recent edit as of when this edit to the talk page was made, but then someone started to include both forms?? Any comments about whether the word "billion" should be kept?? 66.245.126.161 15:47, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Billion re-inserted along with scientific notation for clarity (for those who understand sci. not.). Billion is also used in several other places within the article and I inserted sci. not. with them also. May have missed some. Also did some more cleanup on this hodge-podge article at the same time. I'm the someone referred to in your note. Who are you? -Vsmith 16:40, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Sol III

Earth is almost never called Sol III. Google hits:

Earth

11.100.000

Terra

4.650.000 (most indirectly related)

Sol III

4.340

The latter is almost exclusively science-fiction. It is not enough to be featured in the first line in the article about Earth. An obscure SF-term is not notable enough for that! Gerritholl 09:47, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)

How about "Dirt"? Google shows 654 hits for "Planet Dirt" :) -- Arwel 22:50, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Third rock from the Sun

48.100

(SEWilco 05:54, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC))

Human life outside earth

Does anyone have any opinions about whether permanent human life outside earth can become possible?? Where in the universe is this?? (This question was brought to my attention based on something that Louis Epstein wrote a while ago about people living thousands of years, which he says advanced technology makes possible, but which can't become useful with human life staying completely on earth because earth will become too crowded.) (Also, if you have any external links that talk about doing so, feel free to include them.) 66.245.26.209 14:49, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I'm sure that most of us have opinions on that. In a galaxy of at least 100 billion (1.0E9) stars it seems pretty darn likely that there are a more than a few that have terrestial sized planets at suitable distances around Sol type stars for liquid water to pool on the surface. There is even some evidence to suggest that the distinctive ratio and distance between the Earth and the Moon could be quite common. (Simulations show that a planet forming from primordial gas would naturally form another body near the La Grangian point between the planet and its star. That would be at the L4 or L5 regions between Earth and Sol in this case. The presence of a Jovian sized and situated planet would rock the other body out of its La Grangian point, where it would collide with the major body (Earth) and probably form a moon like ours. This theory does account for the relatively large iron core on Earth with the correspondingly low iron content on the Moon, since the impact would vaporize and melt most of the material of both bodies and the heaviest elements would tend to sink to the center of the larger mass whild the light silica, aluminum, etc, would coalesce into the crust and into the sattellite).

So, in short, there are opinions and more importantly there are theories that describe the mechanics of how a terrestrial Earth/Moon system could readily form around any star similar to Sol with a Jovian planet at the appropriate distance. There are simulations that support these theories. (The fact that the Moon is so close and relatiively large might be vital to the evolution of terrestrial life due to tidal effects at least, and possibly due to the way that the Moon "sweeps" our orbits and apparently significantly reduces the number of meteoric and other collisions with Earth). From a cosmological point of view Earth and Sol and our entire Solar system shouldn't be remarkable. There are millions of other stars in this galaxy that are similar in all the respects that we can observe from here, and many of the models suggest that nearly identical planetary formations could readily occur in many of them. We only know of our Solar system's remarkable capacity to support terrestrial life because we happen to be here; and we know of know way that we could detect terrestial-similar life even as close as Alpha Centauri, much less further out.

I would find it likely that there are other planets that already support carbon, nitrogen, oxygen life forms. There might be thousands of them. It's possible that we are the only "intelligent" life form in this galaxy at this time. However, there are many superclusters, each consisting of tens of thousands of galaxies, each of which having at least hundreds of spiral galaxies like ours, and each of those containing billions of stars like ours. It would be the epitomy of arrogance to assume that this little bump on a speck in one of them is the only place in the observed universe were "we" can be found. However, that's just my opinion and an inkling of the reasoning upon which I've formed it.JimD 13:17, 2004 Dec 4 (UTC)

Artificial Satellites

I've seen no mention of the number of artificial satellites orbiting Earth. I think it is definitely worth noting that our planet has thousands of bits of metal that we put up there ourselves orbiting it, even if only from an astronomical standpoint. --Jacius 22:30, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I don't think it's possible to know how many "artificial satellites" there are, in the sense of separate objects in orbit which were put there by humans. Back in the 1960s there was an experiment which involved releasing millions of "needles" (or exploding a satellite into very small fragments, I forget which) into orbit to see how they behaved. This has polluted certain orbits ever since, and was a particularly stupid idea. -- Arwel 22:53, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

moon navigator

It would be good to link the various moon navigator's together, and provide a small page explaining them(it could be called Wikipedia:moon navigator). Right now, it's not obvious what purpose it serves. I don't have time to do it right now, but I'll do it if no one else gets to it. JesseW 13:39, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Infobox template

The template seems to have been corrupted. I don't know how to access it so I copied the infobox from before the template move (11-4) and pasted it back into the article. -Vsmith 01:00, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Looks like an anonymous user chopped off the last few lines of the template, which removed the table-termination code (as well as the "edit this template" link that would have made it easier to fix :). The entirety of the article wound up being engulfed by the table as a result. I've fixed it now. Bryan 02:04, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks. I had figured that was the likely problem, just couldn't find the template file to fix it. I'm learning... -Vsmith 03:20, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Whenever you see something in curly brackets like {{this}}, you can usually find it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:this. The exception is when it's explicitly in another namespace, such as {{Wikipedia:this}}, a trick that's used in many of the "voting" administrative pages to keep things tidy. That doesn't come up in regular articles, though. Bryan 03:48, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

That Image of Earth is 5 MBs...

Rather large for an article don't you think?

Zen Master 05:15, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The image that's actually displayed on Wikipedia is only 110kB, though, since it's been thumbnailed. You only download the 5MB version if you click through the thumbnail. Bryan 08:00, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

yeah but still too big, and links to too big of a file. I guess wikipedia gets their bandwidth for free. Zen Master 08:16, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I think it's donated by Bomis. — David Remahl 08:21, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Personally, I think it's good both for the reason that extra resolution is always better for free content when possible(makes reuse easier), and the impression that the earth is as big as it is is strengthend by having an image that can't easily be displayed on one screen. ;-) JesseW 08:43, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I agree about the resolution, but what about modem or other slow users and if wikipedia's bandwidth really is free may I have some too? Zen Master 10:05, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I just added a note to the caption.(On Template:Planet Infobox/Earth) Re: free bandwidth; you just did, and do everytime someone looks at your User page. ;-) JesseW 05:47, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Hollow Earth?

I've heard talk about a hollow Earth theory.. and I've done little research on it with Google. I'm not sure if it's complete bogus or if it's true, but some people seem to believe the theory (and some claim to have traveled inside Earth). Shouldn't something about this theory about Earth be included? --Mike 07:43, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There's an article about it at Hollow Earth. Oddly enough, it's not linked to from this article; I'll fix that. Bryan 08:47, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)

---

Shouldn't we mention something about Tellus?

Social statistics in the infobox

Identifying Earth with the human race seems rather inaccurate to me. There must be a more appropriate article for those stats to go in. I would recommend human. Bonalaw 09:55, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I say they should stay here. You might split out Earth (planet) (which now redirects here, move info to that article instead) with information similar to that in Mercury (planet) and Venus (planet) and the like, leaving only a little of that here with link. Gene Nygaard 10:36, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I dislike that new info box with human social statistics. The rest of the article is mostly on the physical characteristics of the earth, it seems as though the social statistics are out of place.

Also I would like to point out that there are exactly two (2) refferences for this article when I am typing this. This number should be far far higher for an article as important as this one. Harley peters 20:40, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Yes, the social statistics definitely needs to go. I suggest moving it to human. Fredrik | talk 18:49, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

New illustrations available

For the Swedish article I've created an illustration of Earth's interior. If you like it you might want to add it here as well. Have a look at:

1. commons:Image:jordens_inre_med_siffror.jpg
2. commons:Image:jordens_inre.jpg

/ Mats Halldin 06:00, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I like the carbon cycle diagram --Smartech 07:04, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Mostly Harmless

Anyone else in favor of wiping out the article and replacing it with the words "mostly harmless"? I thought I'd survey public opinion before doing it myself. Halidecyphon 20:41, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I just resisted the temptation, myself. - RJ Mar 2005

It's been done over and over and over and over and over and over (deep breath) and over and over again. It was barely funny the first time. :) Bryan 07:43, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Before you do it you must file proper paperwork for "Interstellar Topic Bypass" at the regional Vogon consulate. (SEWilco 17:16, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC))

It is highly reccomended that you attend a vogon poetry recital while there, preferably before filing Kim Bruning 17:33, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

#REDIRECT H2G2 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A482933) -- Solipsist 20:49, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I especially like the part of a recent valdalism stating GDP of $900 billion per capita, if inflation doesnt skyrocket as well :) Smartech 07:02, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

List of people tempted to do this, who thought better of it after reading the note at the top of the page

• 195.158.9.78 12:02, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

I say we should do it, but perhaps there should first be a poll, perhaps on the main page. Tribute to the greatest writer who ever lived is always important.

Above unsigned comment by 207.239.12.200, a user who has done the "blank and Mostly Harmless" thing several times, despite several warnings (including a specific request not to do so by me on May 13 here). --Deathphoenix 21:14, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

How about this. Next time someone replaces it with "mostly harmless", we slap a copyvio template on it? --SPUI (talk) 22:44, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

The irony is that anyone who tries to describe Earth as "mostly harmless" in an encyclopedia is missing the point of the joke anyway. --Bonalaw 11:40, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Shape

Recently 67.161.42.199 added:

The earth is a very slightly oblate spheriod, with a average diameter of approximately 12,742 kilometers. Since the highest point on the earth, the summit of Mount Everest is only 8,850 meters, the earth is spherical within a tolerance of one part in 1,439, or 0.00069 percent. The mass of the earth is approximately 6 sextillion metric tons.

The tolerance part of this is nonsense. We quote in the article "Equatorial diameter 12,756.28 km, Polar diameter 12,713.56 km", giving a difference equator to pole of 43 km at sea level. As I recall the point farthest from the center is actually at the top of some mountain in South America near the equator. Though the calculation is apparently wrong, it might still be worth having these few sentences, assuming someone here who isn't about to go bed can figure out how to accurately describe the shape of the Earth. Dragons flight 08:57, Mar 22, 2005 (UTC)

Mount Chimborazo, to be specific. This needs to be addressed. Fredrik | talk 15:06, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Image vs Infobox

User:Dragons_flight said that Image:Earth-crust-cutaway-english.png being placed on the right causes problems: "On wide screens, placing it on the right creates a huge gap between Core and Mantle." Not on my browser, even when expanding to span two monitors. Placing the image on the left can produce the text below on a more common width. (I'll work on the monster Infobox some to reduce various problems). (SEWilco)

[edit]
Mantle
Main
article:
Mantle
(geology)
Earth's
mantle
extends to
a depth of 2890 km. The pressure, at the bottom of the mantle, is

That looks better. I split the social box off, and moved it next to the Human section. Infoboxes tend to be at the top of an article, but that would widely separate the related text and box, with a lot of Earth_as_planet between. (SEWilco 05:33, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC))

What's Going on?

The first part of this article is total crap...I can't get rid of it cause I can't find it when I go to edit...something's wrong! Bremen 05:33, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

editnote template listed for deletion

In case someone is interested, the editnote template used in the Mostly Harmless reminder has been suggested for deletion: Templates_for_deletion#Template:Editnote Template author: (SEWilco 18:11, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC))

there are other solar systems

I really think the beginning of this article should be more general. (not signed by submitter)

If that's the case, the article for Solar system needs to be updated. It implies there is only one system centred on Sol. Notinasnaid 19:26, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

No, as this is about a specific planet. The beginning does have a link to solar system, which promptly mentions that if you are interested in bodies around other stars you should look at planetary system. (SEWilco 19:29, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC))